Easter Basket Ideas: The Graduation Easter Basket

Pack the Easter basket with unique gifts and items in celebrating the 2011 graduate. 5th graders, 8th graders, high school seniors, and college grads deserve a little something special this holiday season. Follow the theme description, color scheme, tips, tricks to suggestions in creating this Graduation Easter Basket.

Thanks to a couple of German travelers with a traditional basket sense, the US has transformed into an Easter loving nation. Now, let's hop to it!

But first, the expected supplies.

Easter baskets require one basket, one newspaper, Easter grass [filler], clear basket wrap or festive wrapping paper, scissors, thick or thin ribbon, a traditional basket bunny and fruits everyone has grown accustomed to. School colors for fillers, wrap, and ribbon.

Colors required: Green filler, yellow wrap, yellow ribbon. Ribbon length depends on basket size. Green and yellow colors are used in this project since the local school shares those colors. However, use the colors that best fits your desired spectrum.

Newspaper base fillers can be compared to base filler pillows. Lay out a sheet of newspaper. Crumble up half pieces of newspaper and place on the center of the open sheet. Use as many half sheets as it would take to fill the bottom of the basket. Fold over the edges of the newspaper until you have one large newspaper ball. Place the base filler inside of the basket. Tuck it in but don't press down on it too hard. The point of this base filler is to add height.

Towel or blanket fillers are not such a bad idea. They could be related to any grade, any school, any future endeavor(s). Create a newspaper base filler and place it on the back of a towel that is laying on a flat surface. Wrap the towel around the newspaper ball and slowly flip as you tuck the round sphere into the basket. The gift that just keeps giving.

Green basket grass can be found in most stores. Spread one, or more, bags of green Easter grass evenly and equally throughout the basket lightly. Do not press down, that is the job of heavy and large items. Next!

Here comes those graduation gifts. And most angles are covered - where to purchase, general information on each item, product codes, so on.

Heavy or Large Graduation Gift Ideas:

Personalized graduation bears are cute additions. But there is more to it than purchasing a stuffed animal with the word congrats written in bold. Be creative! What can you place on the stuffed animal? A new necklace, a bracelet, a pocket watch, or any other form of jewelry. That is if you lack a jewelry box or just wish to display the jewelry in a unique fashion.

Good from kindergarten to college, the 9" tall white graduation bear comes personalized by adding words on the bottom of the black graduation gown "[name of student] class of [year graduating]", cap and gold tassel included. You can purchase this absolutely adorable graduation bear for $14.99 ea. by visiting PersonalCreations.com and keyword [search] the numbers 30039281.

Embroider your "class of" through Veeshee.com on a blanket, curtain, briefcase, quilted laptop bag, cooler, towel, accessories, and more. You can also embroider a name.

New embroidered laundry bag for the college student? Why yes, perfect timing! Veeshee offers the Laundry Duffle [$28.99] - 28" H x 16" W x 16" D to personalize with any message [or monogram] you wish. Simply visit Veeshee.com, click on accessories and scroll down to the blue Laundry Duffle which comes in a spectrum of colors.

Prepaid credit card, phone card, gas card [definitely], gold or water proof high tech sports watch [time for future endeavors], nice compass [so they always find their way back home], college logo item, or new camera to capture each upcoming moment are excellent graduation gifts. Cameras usually come in large boxes. Meaning, they are best for the largest of baskets.

The Nikon CoolPix L100 camera would be my choice. Macro, flip flash, motion detection, blink warning, multiple shots per second, everything a professional camera does but there are those differences. You can't change the lens, you have to wait until the camera auto focuses at times, and it costs $229.95. But it is durable, loaded with options and should offer years of e-mails with photo attachments. Yes, this camera downloads beautifully. Visit NikonUSA.com and keyword product ID: 26170.

A portrait created from a photo of the basket receiver is not such a bad idea. How would I know? My mother did that for my sister. They paid a professional painter to paint a portrait of my sister's head. It turned out beautiful. My sister adored it for decades - all the way up to her death. Simply place the portrait, if too big for the basket, behind the couch but place the message involving the portrait inside of the basket. As the lyrics from The Way We Were by Barbara Streisand, the message speaks to the receiver.

"Memories, light the corners of my mind. Misty watercolor memories of the way we were. Scattered pictures...portrait perfect. Look behind the couch egghead!"

Okay, so not that dramatic but you get what I'm saying.

The IPhone, IPod, and other small forms of electronics that can bring much joy to any grad girl or boy. Even though small in measure they can be packaged within medium size boxes. Therefore, these gifts would be defined as heavy or large.

Other graduation gifts and basket surprises considered large would be books and magazines, large fruits or anything that barely fits in the palm of your hand. T-shirts? Absolutely, large!

Senior 2011 hoodies [$35] through Cafepress.com come in white, long sleeve, with a hood at 90/10 cotton - polyester. The design on the face of this hooded sweatshirt shows the letters SR with the numbers 20 below on the left side as the numbers 11 are placed vertically upright on the right side. Keyword: 457663099.

The MBA Light Tee is semi-sporty with a touch of business. The $22 t-shirt has the traditional logo semi-clone where the basketball player dribbles the ball between the colors of blue and red. But on this shirt the basketball player is a man holding a briefcase with the NBA logo spelling out MBA. Keyword: 404901972. Get the same design on a really good $20 golf tee. To view this MBA golf tee keyword: 187017940. This form of cloning could break a smile.

The Women's Cap Sleeve Raglan [$22] works best for those with a cute sense of humor. The shirt has small fitted black sleeves, white body with the words 2011 Kiss My Class Goodbye! Again, found at Cafepress. Keyword: 501203150.

The Floral 2014 Class Tee for females has been designed like the Women's Cap Sleeve Raglan. The difference is within the message. The face of the shirt has three pink flowers over two orange-yellow flowers, such as the ones found on the Scooby Doo mystery van, with the pink words Class of 2014 below the flowers. Keyword: 415164932.

MBA mugs [Cafepress.com] can appeal to those who celebrate the many years of scholastic achievement towards their MBA or those who are working on it. Keyword: 378708750. There you will find the $15 white mug with handle and the words displayed MBA - When your BS can't take you any further. The Academic Mug, same price, defines research. Best given to those entering the research field or involved with research in general. Keyword: 501203150.

Engraving a personal graduation related message to the back of a ring, necklace, bracelet, or pen marks the occasion when dated. You can place the graduation date on the items as well. Most jewelry stores engrave but not all do. Visit your local jewelry dealer in seeking further information.

Wrapping tips! Wrap and ribbon all boxed gifts. Tie a ribbon around the other gifts, including the t-shirt(s). Roll the t-shirt(s) neatly and tie a ribbon around it. Cut an upside down "V" on the end of one ribbon just two inches from where the ribbon is tied. Do the same for the other side. This design gives the ribbon a nice decorative appeal.

Theme tips! Graduation Party Themes can offer further graduation Easter basket ideas. To add a little variety you can also visit Beach Lovers Easter Basket, the celebrity Easter basket ideas for Bieber and Sheen, or the Royal Wedding Easter Basket idea.

Candy, Jelly Beans & Creative Easter Eggs:

Adding graduation M&Ms to an Easter basket is perfect in celebrating the sweet tooth grad. Simply visit My M&Ms, choose a color, add image, clip art and message than proceed to step 3 [packaging]. Prices vary as seen here..

Jelly beans should be the school colors of the school last attended or the school a student would be attending. You can use a large amount of jelly beans to place on the base filler inside of the basket.

Easter eggs should be dyed in school colors. Another great Easter egg idea goes to using a wax crayon to write congratulations before placing the egg into the coloring. Make sure you leave the egg in the color a super long time, but not a super-duper long time! The dye can absorb inside of the shell and the egg. It is not harmful, according to most doctors, but who wants to eat dyed egg white?

So, let's see what you have already.

Wrap it up!

Basket base filler, check. Grass filler, check. Chocolate bunny, check. Heavy items, check. Medium size items, check. Small items, check. Easter eggs, check. Jelly beans, check. Note or Easter message, check. And everything not mentioned on this list, check. The last item to ever go into a basket would be that Easter card or note. Time to wrap things up!

Place the basket on the center of the wrap and pull the wrap upwards. Take a twisty with your loose hand [twisty used for garbage bags] and twist the twisty to secure the wrap in a location that best fits the basket shape and size. Tie a ribbon into a bow where the twisty is located.

Now it is time to pass that Graduation Easter Basket to the rightful owner, the graduate.

Happy Easter and congratulations to all graduating students!

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Related Link(s):
PersonalCreations.com
NikonUSA.com
Cafepress.com
MyM&Ms.com