Personalized Gifts

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, I hope you had a good one, and I received an issue of “Cooking with Paula Deen”. The cover of the May issue reads at the top “Dinner in 25 minutes or Less” it was probably a hint since I cook very little! This came from the May/June 2010 issue and can be found online at www.cookingwithpauladeen.com. Like most other magazines there is a section where people write to Pauls and ask her cooking related questions. One question really stood out to me because it was gift related.

The question someone asked Paula was about giving a wedding gift. The friend was having a kitchen shower and this lady wanted to give the one having the shower a gift card yet didn’t want the gift card to be so impersonal and asked how she could make the gift card more thoughtful and more fun to receive.
Paula’s answer to this was really a great one she suggested that the gift card be placed in a plain white box and then use kitchen wrapping paper such as parchment paper, waxed paper, plastic wrap, or even aluminum foil to wrap the box and give it a bow using natural cotton twine. Then Paula suggested to finish it off with a simple gift tap made from recycled greeting cards and write “Get Cooking” on the front and a personal message on the back.

Now I thought that was a really unique idea for a wedding shower since so many people these days do have a kitchen party of some kind. The part I like the most of course was the recycled greeting card to be used for the gift tag.  Now I usually keep the cards my kids pick out and the ones my husband gives me and put them in a scrapbook, okay so they are all in a box waiting to be put in a scrapbook but the intention is there..LOL.  I usually just throw the other small count I get in the trash but I will definitely be removing the  unprinted parts from now on and saving them to use for things such as gift tags.  You could also use them as note cards and if you do any stamping you could put your last initial on them as you need them and write your own thank you cards when needed!  The scrap pieces would be great for die cut machines, scrapbooking (provided the greeting card is safe for scrap books).  This actually opens up so many possibilities as you could cut them into 4×6 cards and personalize them for yourself or friends by sending them through your home printer and making them into recipe cards, stationary post cards, invitations.  Man this list could go on and on!

Will you start recycling the next greeting cards you get?  If so, what’s the first thing you’d like to use them for?

If you are already recycling your greeting cards what creations have you made with them?

Keeping it Unique,

Kristal