Hello ladies! My very good friend is having her baby shower on Sat. I've already bought her gift which consists of about 12 different items...a few outfits, wipes, a carseat toy, a plush football, small brag book, little mittens, pack of receiving blankets, 2 other medium sized toys, backseat baby view mirror. As you can see the sizes of the things I got her range from small to medium sized so I'll need to put them in something fairly large. Here's my dilemma...I've already spent about $100 & need something inexpensive. What can I use other than a gift bag or regular basket to wrap the gift?? For my shower gift last summer she put everything in a very nice wood basket so I'd like to do something a little different for her. Any suggestions? I am terrible at this sort of stuff & appreciate any suggestions! TIA!!
Thank you all so much for your input! Since my friend did the fill a basket thing for me I really wanted to do something different than a basket/laundry basket. I liked the baby bath idea but someone already purchased the bath she registered for & another friend of mine did the blow up duck bath for me at my shower. My friend always puts alot of thought into gifts so I want to do something unique that she may not have seen before. I decided to combine a couple suggestions & get a cheap umbrella stroller & use the items I bought already to make it look like a baby sitting in the stroller. I'm on my way to babiesrus now...Thanks again for all the wonderful suggestions & ideas ladies, you mamas are lifesavers!
I saw this at a baby shower and I thought it was the cutest thing.
She had several outfits and items and she used wooden pins to pin them to a close line and tucked them neatly in a gift bag. At the end of the line was a little tag that read "pull"
The new mother then pulled literally a line of clothing, outfit after outfit. It was the cutest thing and its cheap with a big wow factor!
Good luck with what you do.
Hi, D. -
She's going to need a clothes hamper for the little one. Why not find an inexpensive hamper and use it to hold all the goodies?
Good luck!
I would put it all in a plastic tote, the ones that have a lid. They are great for storage and you can get them in different sizes to fit what you have. They are farely inexpensive.
There's a cute and practical inflatable tub in the shape of a duck made by Munchkin you can buy at Target for $9.99. If you inflated it, it would be large enough to hold all the other items and look adorable on top of it.
I always put gifts in a diaper bag. Even if it's not the perfect one she wants to carry around all the time, it's always nice to keep an emergency one left in the trunk of the car.
Hi D.,
Your such a girl after my own heart. I have done this in the past many times and have come across the same dilemma.
Well, so many have already suggested what I have done but here's my take on it.
My first thought was laundry basket based on expense. But I would buy it according to sex of child if you know what she is having. Like Blue, Pink, Yellow and definitely decorate it with ribbons. That would definitely make it fun and more decorative. A soft sided one is what I have for my son and I literally have it in his room by the door and use it as his hamper. I think I got it at Target.
When you give it to her you can say it's for the Baby's Laundry and maybe add and inexpensive box of "Dreft". Sometimes I have seen travel size boxes at Babies R'Us.
If you could afford a little more I have definitely used a cute bath tub or diaper bag.
If you do decide to just do a cute big gift bag but you want to change it up and still give it a fun "wow" effect. Buy a plastic rope (something to use like a Clothes Line) and some clothes pins (plastic or wooden) and pin everything you bought as best you can on the rope so when she pulls the rope out you can help her by holding one end (and have her hold the other end) and then pull everything out to display and hang like on a clothes line. Really fun and cute! I got the idea from a game I have played with the several showers I have given over the years and then I would just give them the clothes line with all I had hanging on it.
Have fun with all these ideas. I would love to know what you end up doing.
A.
Somthing very inexpensive - decorate a brown paper bag, or wrap a box (with top cut off) and use the receiving blankets as "tissue paper". A laundry basket or hamper would also work. You could also wrap (with tissue paper) and stack, large to small (pyramid shape), and tie with ribbons.
Why not one of those plastic bath tubs. The kind you put over the kitchen sink. I just loved mine. I don't think they cost very much. My baby is 19 years old so maybe the prices have gone up on them. I am sure she will enjoy all of the lovely, thoughtful gifts you have gotten her. Enjoy the shower.
J.
How about a new diaper pail (with ribbon) or a blanket (with ribbon) to put all of the gifts in?
how about a laundry basket? You can get those at the $$ store. Or if you are close to a Joanne's or michaels you can get a basket there...or how about goodwill? They generally have baskets there too. Best of luck!
You could find a cute inexspensive diaper bag and decorate it w/ a pretty satin bow. I think that would be classy and cute!
Hope that helps!! Good Luck!
If size allows, wrap each gift individually and put them in a diaper pail. A large rattan laundry basket (tall but not quite as wide as a conventional basket) would also work. You can tie a ribbon to each package and extend the ribbon over the side of the basket so she can pull each gift one at a time. Have done this sort of thing many times and it is fun for all.
Good luck!
Use a nice laundry hamper with a lid- then put a bow on it. That way she has a hamper for the babies dirty clothes.
My favorite gift to give & I do it for everyone I know!!
I buy a baby hamper, line it with a baby blanket & put everything in there & put a bow on top! No wasted wrapping paper & they use everything!!! ie wipes, bottles, binkys, soaps, detergents diapers whatever you have...good luck!
what about a new diaper bag for her and baby??
What about a small laundry basket? With my first boy, a friend gave me a wicker laundry basket filled with baby stuff and I used it strictly for his baby clothes. Five years later, I'm still using it and have now passed it on to my second son, also born in July '08.
What about using an inexpensive diaper bag?
The easiest is a diaper bag, but they can be a bit pricey - although an alternative to that would be a smaller version made for quick trips on the go where only a couple of items are needed to run a quick errand. Those are cheaper, or even a cute little duffle bag themed for a boy or girl that they can use as they get older - We still have one my son uses and he's 15 now!
Also, a small pink or blue round laundry basket is always nice because it also works for doing baby's laundry!
I did see another idea that was really cute -
a package of new diapers laid on it's side, everything else displayed on top (you can tape the items to the diaper package to keep them in place). Get a large piece of colored see-through cellophane, wrap it around everything and gather it at the top with a twist-tie, bow or ribbon. You could also tie on a rattle, teether or booties to the top. It makes a great presentation, and the biggest expense is the diapers.
Hello D., Here are a few ideas I came up with to help put all your items in. How about a laudry basket? They are fairly cheap and can always be used and not just for laundry either. Your friend can use it to help hold all her little fella/angels toys in when it's time to pick up all the mess and put them away. When I clean up/tidy up the house I put everything in the laudry basket then as I go into each room of the house where the different items belong I take them out of the basket and put them in their proper location. This saves me a bunch of time and useless running back and forth. My next idea was a hamper for the baby's room. Put all your gifts in there. Once she's opened all the gifts she will have a nice linen hamper to put all the baby's dirty laundry in. I would get one with the removable mesh bag inside so she could just grab it and take it directly to the washer. I believe you could find one at Babies R Us for around $19.99. Target has them too for as little as $16.99. I know you probably dont want to spend any more money, but I think it's a cute idea and a well used investment. Check your friends registry she might have one on her list. I hope these ideas help.
Good luck,
Tina
I have seen a lot of people put gifts in a laundry basket...a white oval one. They are very inexpensive and she can us that too.
Have fun at the shower!
M.
go to the Dollar Tree and get a plastic tub or laundry basket... then she can use it for clothes, toys, etc. later. If it has holes in it, you can always weave ribbon through to jazz it up if you want. :)
most of my answers are in the reponses already. But having just had my little guy 9 months ago, I will tell you I use a soft sided laundry basket in blue plastic that was part of a gift and a large plastic tub that held diapers I use for storing baby clothes. both items have come in handy.
take a box wrap it, cut a hole out of the middle get a peice of ribbon or string and attach each item with a safety pin (the little gold ones) and put everything into the box. attach a stuffed animal or something to the end of string and when they pull it up everything will come out like a cloths line. works really good and is actually very cute
A friend gave me a ton of stuff in a blow up plastic duck baby bath - so cute!
Mamasource won't let me attach the image, but here is the link to a picture I found when I did a google search
http://www.babyant.com/bh013022.html
It's $18 but you might be able to find it locally and less expensively.
good luck!
You might not have time to do this but I found a little bouncer.(the type that sits back and vibrates) for $10 at a garage sale. I washed the fabric and stuffed all the things I bought into a onsieand a blanket and made it look like there was a baby in the bouncer. A stuffed toy(maybe your football) was used as the head. It turned out cute.
How about a treasure chest? She can use it later as a toy box.
I would wrap each thing separate, then put them in a gift bag, or find a fun way to stack them and tie with a ribbon. YOu could also make a type of large boquet out of everything.
You could put everything in a baby bathtub.
Hi D.,
How thoughtful you are.
What about:
-a hand-decorated laundry bag.
-an infant tub.
-a basinet.
-an umbrella stroller.
Have fun.
t
I've used a laundry basket, which gives you lots of room to put stuff, as well as is usable once empty!
Well, it kind of depends what items you got...I like to do an underbed rubbermaid container so that the new mom has a place to store things like baby clothes that are too small, etc. If the items are small enough, you can do a smaller container which is good for putting bath toys in, bath supplies like shampoo and such in, or use it as a medicine bin so all that stuff is kept together. We actually use a small container for all 3 of those things. At target there's a plastic bin that has wheels and a handle on it. A friend of mine put my baby shower gift in that and the bin is a great toy box because you can roll it anywhere...I think the bin is $9 or maybe $13...something like that. You could do a real toy chest, but that might get expensive. For one of the gifts I did I hot glued lace all around the edge of it so it was nice and pretty (she was having a girl). Good Luck!!
