crafty gift

This is Dave in his office on April 17th, tax day, this year.  After an especially long and grueling “tax season” I decided he needed a special “It’s Finally Over!!!” gift from me.  So I made up this basket… filled with some of his favorite things… here is how I did it.

First, I went to Total Wine and picked up a few airline-size liquor bottles and splits of wine and champagne. After that, a quick stop at the grocery store for cookies, cheese, crackers, anchovy stuffed olives, and summer sausage.

Next, I came home and found a suitable container that was lying around the house. I filled it with oasis, also known as floral foam.

Then I heated up the trusty glue gun and glued wooden skewers to all the items, except the heavier splits and the jar of olives.

Since shredded paper is a big part of a tax office, I grabbed my little paper shredder and dumped a bunch of shredded paper into the pot to fill in the gaps and cover the oasis.

Next, I started arranging the skewers into the foam, larger items in the back and smaller ones in the front.

This little scull tequila bottle was my favorite find and the best visual addition to the basket, even though Dave’s not a huge tequila fan, it was a must! So colorful and cute!

Lastly, I placed the finished pot into a wicker basket, filled it with more shredded paper, and surrounded the pot with the larger items.

Voilà, that’s all there was to it!

I hopped into the car, drove to Dave’s office, and presented it to him.  He was thrilled… for about 2 minutes… then a client called and he was back at it. So I came returned home and let him finish his day.

Good news… it’s over! For another year anyhow.