Create an Eye-Catching Gift Basket for Octoberfest: Tips and Tricks

[ChefMary412]

I am donating a gift basket to our church for an Octoberfest. They end up having people put "bids" on it. I have a bunch of the new items to put in there. How should I have it look? I was thinking about taking the dots things out of the boxes and arranging everything else, still in plastic in a basket. Then saving the dots boxes for whoever wins it. Does that make sense? I have the Med bowl, the trio, the pastry cutter, beaded serving set, Holiday Cookbook, mini adj. cup.

 

[Ginger428]

I am donating a gift basket to our church for an Octoberfest. They end up having people put "bids" on it. I have a bunch of the new items to put in there. How should I have it look? I was thinking about taking the dots things out of the boxes and arranging everything else, still in plastic in a basket. Then saving the dots boxes for whoever wins it. Does that make sense? I have the Med bowl, the trio, the pastry cutter, beaded serving set, Holiday Cookbook, mini adj. cup.

Don't you want to use them to show at your upcoming shows? If you have other items in your house that are new in boxes or packages or even some discontinued items, you can set them up nice & they would be less out of your pocket...HTH

 

[Jess_K]

put filler paper at the bottom of your basket, the stuff PC sends for filler works great, then lay a towel (PC)? at the bottom and fill it up from there..use a twixitt for the tie at the top
I love making gift baskets! good luck

 

[JAE]

put filler paper at the bottom of your basket, the stuff PC sends for filler works great, then lay a towel (PC)? at the bottom and fill it up from there..use a twixitt for the tie at the top
I love making gift baskets! good luck

Do you have any pictures to share? I don't know how to put them in a thread, so if you don't either, put them on your profile page and let us know if you have any.

 

[KellyTheChef]

I agree about "stuffing" the bottom of the basket. That will help the items stand up and show much better. You can stuff it with newspapers or our filler from PC orders, then "top" that with something pretty like colored frizzle paper. (Not sure what the actual name of it is...it's kindof like paper "easter grass" stuff they use in gift baskets.

I use the shrink wrap type of cellphane so that once I tie it off (with a twixt or a big bow) I can use my hair dryer on it to shrink the wrap. That REALLY makes it look professional.

Also...if you have smaller items, or items that want to slip out of place, use some double sided tape to TAPE them to other items so they stay put and look nice!

Don't forget to put some items in there with your stamp...or a business card so they can contact you later if they need to!

I agree with taking everything out of the boxes...that will help it to show much better! Saving the boxes to offer to them for storage is a good idea, too! I have done the same thing before with breakable items. If it's not so breakable (say, our food chopper or something that you normally wouldn't store back in the box) I don't save the box for them.

 

[Jess_K]

Do you have any pictures to share? I don't know how to put them in a thread, so if you don't either, put them on your profile page and let us know if you have any.

there are a few on my profile albums, I guess I should take more photos of them.

 

[raebates]

Don't forget to include a current catalog or, at the very least, a mini-catalog.

 

[ChefMary412]

Thanks for the help! I was also going to include a coupon for $15 of product when they host a show, a recipe card, and of course a business card! I like the shrink wrap idea. I think for the "basket" part I am going to use the new dots medium bowl! I love the twixit on top idea!

 

[PamperChefCarol]

I get the shrink wrap stuff at Michaels/JoAnn's (craft stores here in Michigan) and it's super easy to do. You just need hair dryer.

What I do is put in a GC that I make that has to be redeemed through me directly. That ups the value of the basket and if they don't redeem it, it's nothing out of my pocket.

Just my 2 cents.. your products in your basket sound very generous. I did a basket for a church auction this spring and just used a trifle bowl that I had gotten on a Host special for $16 (or so), some discontinued microfiber towel, a season's best, and a discontinued mini serving spatula and my personal GC. Shrunk wrap the bowl with the season's best/etc sort of standing up inside the bowl and put bow on the top and they were so happy to have it. Personally, it made alot of the other items pale in comparison!!

 

[ChefMary412]

I was starting to think that I put too much into it. I was asking how much they were thinking at church for a retail value since they have done this for a long time. They said "anything"... so I really did not know how much. I don't have any extra things that I do not already use. I might tweat it now since I really like the trio bowl! We will see.