Card Ka-boom!

Pink :: Day 2 (I'm in just under the wire tonight!)

I was in charge of putting together gift baskets for a fundraiser event at Little Think's Elementary School a few weeks ago. Each grade was to donate items for 2 gift baskets and then people bid on them in a silent auction. Other grades did baskets with Art Supplies or Family Game Night stuff or Movie Night stuff.

We have a hip hair dresser mom in Little Think's kindergarten who was willing to donate lots of good stuff so we did a spa basket full of hair products, candles, pedicure kits, soaps, loofahs, etc. We got a ton of donations. (Some were a little scary...as in dusty stuff from the back of people's linen closet...yikes!)  I didn't think I could find a basket to fit it all but I went to my Goodwill and for $2.99 I found this GINORMOUS basket. Seriously it was at least 2.5 feet wide! I could not believe my luck. Weighed about 50 pounds filled up....

But what I really wanted to show you was the Gift Card basket we did.

I asked people to donate any kind of gift card in any amount.
Ended up with Target, Sonic, iTunes, Movie Theaters, Restaurants etc.
Really pretty good stuff.

To make it pretty I glued some green floral foam in the bottom of a black square basket someone donated.

(See the foam down in there? Not a great shot but you get the idea.)

Then I used some Floral Wire and threaded some Circle Paper Clips on that I had around the house to make clips to hold the cards above the foam.

Then I tucked in tissue paper in reds, oranges, and yellows covering the foam and poking up like the cards were exploding out of the basket. (Michael's has a warm tissue pack that was perfect.) I called it "Card Kaboom" and it went at the auction for a ton of money. (Yay school!)

But I was really thinking that this would be a great thing to do for teachers at the end of the year too. Ask class members to bring in gift cards and make a tag that says something like

"Thanks For Blowing Our Minds This Year!"
 "We Think You're The Bomb!"
"Our Brains are Exploding Because of You"
"This Year was an Educational Explosion!"

(or something WAY better than those lines....its late and my brain is already in bed. Maybe I'll think of better ones tomorrow. Maybe.)

Another way would be to attach the gift cards to scrapbook paper flower shapes and poke them out of a vase or garden pot. "Thanks for helping us grow" or "We are blooming because of you!" etc, etc, etc.

Anyway you get the idea.
I think it is just a great way to give a gift from a large group of people that you have no creative control over. (did that sound design snobby?)

I'm off to bed! :: Think

Comments

[Hannah]

I LOVE this gift card idea. It would be a fun one to do for a baby/bridal shower or graduation as well...so awesome.

[pink]

i love this. way to use those circle clips.

design snob is my third and 4th middle name.

[Crystal]

The gift card basket is a fantastic idea...now I already want to be room mom next year so I can dazzle the teacher with this...is that wrong?

[Kristy]

I love these baskets! My friend Wende and I did this for 2 years at our elementary school and made quite a bit of money. Our big basket was in a rolling cooler with beach stuff with gift certificates to local water parks and a local amusement park. We tired to be creative in the container we put them in instead of just using baskets and it went over really well. The gift baskets are a ton of work!

I wish we would have seen your cute baskets for some more ideas!! Thanks for sharing!

[Ashley C.]

I would have totally bid on the Card Kaboom! It is things like using that floral foam that separate you and Pink from the masses. I am emblazoning this in my brain to copy sometime in the future. I like that rolling cooler idea too!

[Tiffany]

Love this idea and am doing for end of year gifts. Where can I find round paper clips?