How to Make an Inexpensive Tea Relaxation Gift Basket

Gift baskets are easily created, well received, and cheap to make yourself at home for any occasion. Picking a theme, such as relaxation, can give you tons of ideas about what items you'll want to include in a nice gift basket. It really depends on who the gift is for, what your budget is and what the particular recipient likes the most. Everyone can use some type of relaxation at least every once in a while and will appreciate something that helps along the way. Tea lovers would likely love to have a gift basket full of all kinds of different calming varieties to try when winding down. These days, you can find any brand and type of the hot drink at major retail stores for a very low price. This coupled with your own imagination in assembling the gift items and decorating your basket, will make a very unique and inexpensive gift that will last and be put to good use any time it is needed.

First, you will need to assemble all of your supplies to decorate your tea relaxation basket. You will need a basket which coordinates to the size you wish. Walmart has different types and sizes of wicker type baskets for an assortment of prices located in their crafts section. By far, the cheapest places where I have found cute baskets brand new would be dollar and discount stores such as Dollar General, Deals, Dollar Tree, and Big Lots. Craft stores, such as Michaels, often have great deals with coupons as well. I often find tons of baskets at the local thrift stores and garage sales, usually costing between $0.10 and $0.25 each. The basket can be tied up inside of any kind of fabric you like, tulle, lace, or different plastic bags depending on their size. These are also located at the aforementioned stores. You can also assemble the teas into a gift bag or box topped with ribbon, or assemble them in the fabric with a ribbon alone. Fabric can be purchased in the $1 aisle at Walmart by the yard, so it's a very economical wrapping if you're making a medium to large gift basket. Tulle and lace are transparent and very pretty with any type of gift when wrapping. Plastic bags can range in types and size, you can use sandwich bags of any size, you may even want to use the zip close type, clear trash bags, or cello bags of different sizes. These can usually be purchased for $2.00 and under for a set of 6 or more. The best and cheapest by far for topping off your basket is to buy a roll of ribbon, and it will usually run under $0.50 for a few yards. You may want to buy a roll of thick ribbon for tying the bag around the basket, and a roll of thin ribbon for tying up the small bags of tea that will go inside of the basket. If you need a filler, or something to set the items on top of to make the basket look more full, then you can use brown paper bags or gift wrap crumpled up. One of the $1 rolls of gift wrap can suffice, or get some paper bags from Aldi for $0.10 each. All of the stores carry the craft straw and grass for a filler as well.

Next, you need the tea items that you want to include in the basket. One of the best places to get a big variety of different teas for very cheap is Walmart. They carry a brand called Celestial Seasonings. You can take a look at the kinds of tea, coffee, spices, and drink mixes they offer on their website to see what you would like to select, www.celestialseasonings.com/products/. In addition to their chamomile, peppermint, mint magic, sleepytime, and tension tamer; they also carry herbal samplers and other blends of herbs and flavors which reduce stress. A neat feature the site offers is the ability to click on a desired product, put in your zip code, and locate stores near you selling that product. The teas are said to be totally natural, and would be a great fit for anyone into the benefits nature provides. Celestial Seasonings also offers antioxidant rich white, green, and black teas. I can get a box of 20 tea bags in this brand for under $2.50 at the local Walmart where I live. Basically, you'll want to purchase a few boxes of different varieties to build a relaxation sample tea basket. If you buy the five kinds of teas I mentioned before, you will have 100 tea bags. With this many, you can make several gift baskets for everyone on your list, and it will only turn out to cost what it does to buy one pre-made gift basket at the local retail chain.

Other items you may want to top the basket off with depends on what you can find and want to make part of the scheme. Candles are relaxing as well, and make a cheap addition to your relaxing gift item. Discount stores and local retailers are another excellent resource for candles of all sizes, scents, and amounts for low prices. Incense smells wonderful, and helps to create a calming atmosphere when one is trying to de-stress. There are the stick incense varieties and cone incense. Besides these two classics, you can find scented oils, liquid potpourri, dry potpourri, and room sprays in almost any smell you can think of. Candle holders, incense holders, potpourri warmers, and simmering pots make a decorative and practical gift to go along with others. You can also buy all of these items in bulk to separate among several gift baskets. All you have to do is pick a few varieties of candles, incense, and potpourri; then separate them out into the desired packages.

You may want to stick with other food items to go with the relaxation tea basket. Snacks go well with this flavorful, hot liquid. Different types of desserts can accent the taste of any type of tea. Shortbread cookies, and tea cakes are a classic companion for teas. You can find these in local bakeries by the dozens for a few dollars. Another cheap way to is to bake cookies for placement inside of the basket. Chocolates makes a delicious treat to have with a hot cup of tea. Crackers are another inexpensive favorite for tea drinkers. Breads, whether sweet or not, can make a good addition to your tea gifts. Remember that some foods, even tea, can leech scents and flavors from other products such as incense or candles. This is one reason why you will probably want to put everything in plastic bags or wrap before putting it in your fabric and tying it up. This will keep it fresh, as well as prevent cross leeching.

Packaging everything is really simple when you're organized in doing so. Take the tea, candles, incense, potpourri and divide it into the bags or fabric you choose. if you're using liquid potpourri, you can use small bottles found in travel sections at local stores. Separate the amount of each item you desire into equal parts for as many gift baskets as you wish. Place one of each into a bag or piece of fabric, and then tie off with a decorative ribbon you've cut from the roll. You can make labels by hand or print them from your computer for each item. Just get some plain white paper or use some pre-made gift labels from the store. Then you'll want to put information about what tea, candle, incense, or potpourri is in the bag. You'll want to punch a hole into the card at a corner with a knife or hole punch, then thread the ribbon attached to the bag through that hole, and tie it. Some people may prefer to just staple the labels to the bags also. Once you've gotten everything packed and labeled, crumple up the filler, and place it in the bottom of your basket or other container. Set the bags of tea, candles, incense, etc inside of the basket. Place the basket on top of whatever fabric you want to use or put it inside of a bag, then tie it up with a piece of the thicker ribbon from your roll. This will make a beautiful and relaxing gift item which anyone can use at anytime.