Arty Gift Idea

Do you have a friend who is an artist or loves art? I found the below mini canvases and easels and think these could be turned into a great gift tag idea!

If you are a proficient artist you could paint the canvas and give the canvas & easel as a gift itself.

I, however, am not that accomplished an artist. My suggestion would be to find a copy of your friends favourite picture and glue it onto the canvas so they have a mini version of their favourite picture to display. PVA glue would be ideal for this job as you can coat the top of the picture to give it a varnish like finish. Once the picture was dry, I would then superglue the canvas to the easel ensuring the easel can still open fully and stand.

You can write a gift message over the painting if you want this to be purely a gift tag. Alternatively you could write on the easel or use a luggage tag to attach to the easel.

I'm a massive fan of a gift boxes so I would attach the easel to a gift box making sure this could be removed with no damage. You could also thread a ribbon through the easel to hang on a larger gift.

These mini canvases would also work work in a children's party bag or christmas stocking for budding artists!

Small Gifts

The one thing I have noticed that there seems to be a growing prevalence of small gifts or favours that hosts give to guests on departure. This is very common at baby showers and young children's birthday parties and I have seen them at American wedding rehearsal diners and engagement lunches. Many corporate events also give attendees a gift - usually themed or branded with the company logo.

This idea works really well for an event where you are providing a large-ish number of the same item. It works best with small items and can be used on dried food items such as candy/sweets.

Paper napkins a ideal for this purpose. They are all the same size and usually come in packs of 20+. The great thing is if you want them all to be identical they can be or you can mix up colours and patterns to suit your requirements. Most supermarkets stock a wide range of paper napkins as does John Lewis and party shops.

I have used paper napkins to wrap small candles, homemade iced gem biscuits and a few years ago I used a cool mouse printed napkin to wrap sugared mice. For items such as chocolates and cookies you can wrap the napkin in cellophane if you think you may require some extra protection.

These napkins would be ideal for Valentines Gifts!

Large Gift Wrapping

Once in a while I will buy a present that this just too big to wrap in regular wrapping paper. I usually find this may be the case for wedding & anniversary gifts - it's probably something to do with the size of homeware items and young children's gifts.

A good tip for unusual and large size paper is paper table cloths. Often these are around 90cm x 90cm and ideal for bigger boxed gifts.

You can also find a really fab range of these paper cloths with unusual styles and colours. For children's gifts you can usually find a huge amount of themed and brightly coloured paper table cloths so you can go wild!

John Lewis does a great selection of paper cloths and you can find a huge selection on eBay.

Quick Idea

My friend recently bought some small kilner type jars with coloured lids and I was asked how would I use the jars for gifts.

The obvious answer would be homemade sweets or spice mix. If your friends are crafty you could fill with coloured or unusual beads for jewellery making. If you have friends who love to party you could fill with glitter to sprinkle in hair when going out (ensuring it is ok for body use). The list really is endless!

Another quick idea is to 'hang' jewellery within the jar. For this idea I have kept it all very simple - a jar, a pair of earrings and some ribbon. To be able to hang the earrings I attached them to a piece of cling film which I cut to fit the jar. As the jars are quite small I wouldn't use a gift tag but either tape a message on the jar or you could use a waterproof marker pen directly onto the jar so it becomes a keepsake.

The jars are available in places like Ikea and can be as little as £1-£2.

Image Doodle

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Sara's 40th Birthday Gift

This gift all started with this - http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/zamsoe/product/posh-tea-lovers-necklace

I really fell in love with the necklace and that got me going on the theme frenzy! I also found 

Earl Grey lip balm from the same website. I thought these items would make the ideal basis for a gift.

Initially my plan was to go very vintage which would have suited Sara as she is a very cool, crafty, vintage

person. My first snag came in sourcing a suitable vintage cup and saucer. They are easy to find on eBay BUT 

it really depends on budget and how many you want. I found beautiful cups and saucers in America and Canada 

but postage was hugely expensive. I also found great sets but didn't want a whole dining set for one cup and 

saucer. I also hit charity shops and department stores but had no luck in finding that great design that I had in my head.

So, I changed tack. I went searching for a plain cup & saucer that I could decorate. My artistic abilities stretch to 

doodles and the odd flash of artistic sketching so I decided to to keep it simple. I ended up on just decorating the saucer with text.

It was around this time that I decided on what packaging to use. I have three boxes and storage bags full of gift

packaging plus I am a storage hoarder and keep a huge range of unusual boxes, tubs and anything else I think I 

may get some use out of. My plan was to use a plan black gift box I had stored and use some lettered beads as 

an alternative to a gift tag. My colour theme was set as black, white and pink.

Once I had bought my black and pink china pens, a plain white cup and saucer purchased and my box readied, 

I was all set to finish off my gift by making a tea bag for the necklace to sit in.

My initial plan had been to pop the necklace in a yeah bag and have this sit in the cup with the lip balm acting as 

a biscuit on the saucer. However, the tea bags were not big enough for the necklace so I decided to make my 

own. I found a gauze-like paper in Paperchase and made a tea bag. I used a small, thin ribbon to act as the 

string and then made a bag to sit the tea bag in. I stamped a simple message on the tea bag to finish off the look.

Finally I set everything in the gift box, using coordinating tissue paper to act as the protective packaging for the cup and saucer.

I had great fun putting this gift together and, although you can see it is homemade and not 100% professional, I 

think the personalisation and fun shows through