How to Make Thanksgiving Cards
November 15, 2011
Switch from Hallmark to handmade with these Thanksgiving
card-making tips from
Everyone loves a homemade card and these couldn’t be easier! Take a spin through a craft supply store, such as Michael’s, and pick up some blank cards and basic supplies. Grab a mug of hot chocolate, put on some tunes, and start creating!
PRESSED LEAF CARD – Gather fall leaves and press between the pages of a book. After a day or two, carefully remove the leaves and glue to the fronts of blank cards with white craft glue.
TURKEY CARD – Trace around and cut out turkey shapes using a cookie cutter as a guide. (Or, use a craft store shape cutter, such as Sizzix.) Glue on colorful feathers, then glue the turkey to the front of a blank card.
GLITTERY RUBBER STAMP CARD – Rubber stamp a leaf onto the front of a blank card. Use a fine line glue pen to highlight some of the veins. Sprinkle on fine glitter; shake off excess.
FOAM STAMP CARD – Buy inexpensive foam stamps and water-soluble paint at a craft store. Fill a saucer with a shallow pool of paint, dip stamp in and gently press onto the front of a blank card.
SKELETON LEAF CARD – Buy a packet of skeleton leaves at a craft store. Glue to the front of a dark colored card.
Our popular “Christmas Tea Party” basket is back. Click here for details!
Edible Spring Centerpiece
March 21, 2011
Today’s spring centerpiece becomes tomorrow’s salad with this easy tabletop idea from
This time of year it seems foolish to spend a fortune at the florist for cut flowers or a dinner party centerpiece. Instead, explore nurseries and plant shops. You’ll find a cheaper, fresher, and in this case, edible solution. My sister recently brought me this lettuce planter, which she bought at her favorite nursery. Boom! Instant spring centerpiece!
If it lasts long enough, I might nestle a few Easter eggs among the leaves for Easter dinner. But it probably won’t, so I may just have a dinner party and serve salad near the end of the meal, French style. I can use the lettuce as a centerpiece throughout the meal and then use it to make a super fresh salad tableside. Or, I may just transplant it outside and have fresh lettuce all spring. All of these options appeal to my basic instinct to recycle, repurpose, and creatively reuse stuff.
For the place markers, I simply bought a flat of bedding pansies and cut individual compartments apart as needed to fit them into craft store mini planters. These make lovely take home favors for your guests. They can plant them in their own flowerbeds where they will become treasured keepsakes and a constant reminder of your fabulous dinner party!
Spring has sprung! Click here to see some of our new spring gift baskets like “Sweet Surrender” shown below.
Recyclable Floral Centerpiece
May 24, 2010
Happy Memorial Day!
Beautify your party table with this extremely green centerpiece idea,
compliments of Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets!
RECYCLABLE SEEDLING CENTERPIECE
No recipe this week. (But here’s a link to the world’s best barbeque recipe.)
Just wanted to remind you that this time of year the nurseries, farm stands and even the big box stores are loaded with beautiful flower seedlings for planting. Buy a flat or two and make a gorgeous party centerpiece for a lot less than you’d spend on cut flowers. The seedlings can do double duty, first as a centerpiece and then for planting. Even if you don’t have a garden, which I know is the case with many of my NYC readers, you can still reuse the seedlings. Cut the compartments apart into singles before making the centerpiece. As guests leave the party invite them to pluck a seedling from the centerpiece to take home as a party favor. This is recycling at its best!
To make a centerpiece like the one pictured above, buy bedding flats of blooming flowers in colors that match your décor. Nestle the flats into pretty baskets or planters, cutting individual compartments apart as needed to fit the container. Fill in the spaces with florist’s moss. You can find florist’s moss at craft stores, like Michael’s, or big box stores like Walmart.
If you want to get really fancy, make little tags on your computer with planting instructions or simply a message thanking your guests for coming. Stick a hatpin through each tag and plunge it into the dirt to hold it in place. (See photo below.) Arrange all the little pots in your basket as described above and invite everyone to take one home at the end of the evening.
BTW, if you use cutting flower bedding plants, like snap dragons or zinnias, for your centerpiece and then plant them, they’ll produce a third centerpiece later in the summer when they mature and can be cut and arranged in vases!
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS!
Craft a Holiday Paper Star Ornament
December 7, 2009
Get the whole family involved in this charming holiday craft project,
compliments of Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets.
Happy Holidays!
3-D PAPER STARS
These delicate stars are far simpler to make than they appear. Hang them on your Christmas tree or decorate the party room with them by hanging several at varying lengths from a chandelier, doorframe or light fixture. For a variation, cut bell shapes from holiday sheet music and assemble in the same way as the stars.
You’ll Need:
Star cookie cutter or stencil
Art paper in holiday tones
Scissors
Stapler
Squirt-out glitter glue or puffy paint, (optional)
Assorted thin ribbons
Craft glue
1. Use cookie cutter or stencil to trace around and cut out three identical stars from the art paper. With point at top, fold two stars in half vertically.
2. Place folded stars on either side of remaining (flat) star and staple together along vertical fold with a single staple. Decorate with glitter glue and/or paint, if using; let dry. Cut ribbons for hanging stars and attach with a dot of craft glue.
OUR “HOLIDAY STRIPES” BASKET IS THE PERFECT GIFT FOR THE SWEET TOOTH ON YOUR LIST!
Easy Flower Placecards
August 3, 2009
Another easy tabletop decoration idea,
compliments of Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets
EASY FLOWER PLACECARDS
This place marker idea is a byproduct of a piece I did for The Knot that I had to buy a lot of flowers for. It epitomizes what I call “easy elegance.” And, if you have a flower garden and a few plain, utilitarian ramekins, you can make that cheap, easy elegance. Use these botanical beauties for weddings, summer dinner parties and holiday celebrations.
Almost any large, flashy blossom will work. Choose flowers that coordinate with your table setting or, for weddings, in your wedding theme colors. Simply cut the blooms off, leaving about a half-inch of stem. Arrange the blooms (or, just a large, single blossom) in a ramekin filled with water. Loosely tie a beribboned nametag around the flowers or the rim of the ramekin.
My rosebuds had a bit of height, which created a perfect place to tie on the tag. However, if you use flatter flowers, just drape the tag’s ribbon on top of the flower or let it encircle the ramekin and drop onto the plate. Tying ribbon around the rim of the ramekin can be tricky, depending on what kind of ramekin you are using. If you plan to do this, be sure to do it before you add the water and flower.
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS!
Patriotic Placecards for the 4th
June 29, 2009
Happy 4th of July from Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets!
PATRIOTIC PLACECARDS
To make festive placecards for your July 4th party, just glue a dried starfish and a scrap of red ribbon to a blue card. I used a glue gun, but in a pinch craft glue like Aleene’s Tacky Glue will work. Just be sure to give it a little time to dry. Write each dinner guest’s name on a card and stand it in the center of each plate. How easy was that!
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS!
Place Card Favors for Mother’s Day
May 7, 2009
Happy Mother’s Day from Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets!
If you are making a fancy meal for your mom for Mother’s Day, take an extra 10 minutes and put together these sweet take-home place cards. Tiny vases (about 4 inches tall) can be found at craft supply stores, flea markets and big box stores for about a dollar. Fill one for each guest with tiny spring flowers like violets or grape hyacinth. Tie on nametags and place one on each guest’s plate.
For those of you who are NOT making a fancy meal for your mom, get over yourself! Any fool can put together a nice meal even if you can’t cook. If you can hunt and gather, you can make a lovely meal. Here’s how.
Visit your grocery or specialty food store and pick up a rotisserie chicken, a bag of pre-washed salad greens, a bottle of vinaigrette style dressing, oil-cured olives, dried figs or dates, whole almonds, walnut halves and some fresh grapes.
From the deli section, get a pound or so of roasted vegetables and pick out several cheeses to make a cheese board. Include some firm cheeses and some soft; some intensely flavored and some milder. A good combination might include, Grafton Village Cheddar, Camembert, Maytag Blue, aged Mimolette, a goat cheese, an aged sheep’s milk cheese, and a triple-crème cheese, such as St. Andre.
From the bakery section, get a loaf of crusty, country bread and a pretty pie or cake for dessert. Some ice cream to go with that? Up to you. I vote yes.
Pick up your favorite wines or champagne from the liquor store and you’re good to go.
Instead of serving the meal in courses, put everything but dessert on the table at once; even the cheese board. It will look more impressive and you’ll be able to nosh and relax with Mom and your guests rather than jumping up and down to get things.
Put the chicken on a platter and surround it with the roasted vegetables. Put the olives and the nuts in small bowls and arrange them, along with the cheeses, bread, grapes, dried fruits and knives for slicing, on several small cutting boards or platters. Just before serving, toss the salad greens with the dressing in a large bowl. That’s it. Dinner is served!
For dessert, put the cake or pie on a cake stand, if you have one, and serve with ice cream and coffee, if desired.
Cake stand or not, Mom will love this meal. She will love it for the same reason she loved that goofy dinosaur diorama you made for her in third grade, or the very strange vase you created in pottery class. She will love it because she loves you… and because you made it yourself!
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS
Bird Nest Place Cards for Easter
April 7, 2009
Happy Easter from Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets!
How easy is this! Dye a bunch of Easter eggs. If you have nice handwriting, use a Sharpie marker to write the name of each of your dinner guests on an egg. If you don’t have nice handwriting, do as I did and use rub-on letters to spell out each name. Buy craft store bird nests, one for each place setting. Line each nest with excelsior or Easter grass, position the place card egg in the center of the nest, and surround it with jelly beans and candy Easter eggs. You’ll be amazed at the childlike glee these simple place markers bring to your dinner guests. Speaking of children, this is a great project to share with kids. You write the names on the eggs and let the kids arrange the candy and eggs in the nests.
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS!
Easter Party Favors for Kids
March 28, 2009
Happy Easter from Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets!
Get the whole family involved in this easy, economical, Easter craft. Repurpose peat pots and paper cones or cups into charming take-home favors for kids. Grown-ups will love them too!
Use scissors to cut fused peat pots apart to make individual “baskets.” Line with Easter grass and fill with eggs and candy.
To make the paper cone baskets, punch a hole in either side of the cup, thread pretty ribbon through to make a handle and knot it on the inside. (Make the knot nice and big so it holds the handle in place.) Hand the filled baskets out as party favors, or add a nametag and drop one into each person’s glass to create place cards for the Easter dinner table.
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS!
Egg Centerpiece for Spring
March 24, 2009
Happy Spring from Elizabeth W. Gift Baskets!
If you’ve got a cake stand or footed bowl, and a handful of excelsior or Easter grass, you’ve got all you need to showcase dyed eggs in a gorgeous centerpiece. Don’t wait until Easter. Make one now and keep it on your kitchen table. It will provide refreshing eye candy as you usher in spring and new beginnings. You’ll be amazed at how happy it makes you! And, as long as they don’t get any cracks, your eggs will last until Easter and well beyond. (But they won’t be edible!) Simply make a grass nest on the cake stand and nestle your eggs inside. Add jellybeans and/or malted milk Robin’s eggs, if you like. Now wasn’t that easy?
FIND A GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST AT ELIZABETH W. GIFT BASKETS!
