My tip of the week!: My take on gift cards

Gift cards are an easy gift, but sometimes in it nice to unwrap a box or tear the tissue paper out of a bag out of curiosity of what item you may find!  So if you decide that you will give a gift card or just money this season, don't just put it in a card! Try to be creative and find a way to still make the gift fun to open and extra fun to receive.

Here are four ideas to help you out:

(1) Gift card in a small box, wrapped in a bigger box, wrapped in an even bigger box, etc.
For this idea, I would recommend you try to get a big box from the store you purchased the gift card, this way you can fool the person even more by thinking they are receiving a particular item and you would be giving them a hint at the same time. For example, if your card is from Bed Bath and Beyond, purchase a box from their store and put the card in it.  Make sure you fill the box with a lot of tissue paper or something similar as well to add to the fishing!  If you purchase a card from an electronic store you can ask if you could get a laptop box, or computer box, etc.  Make sure you wrap each box from the smallest to the biggest to make it more difficult to finally get to the gift card.

Via Bed Bath and Beyond

(2) Instead of money bills use coins
If you are giving money to someone, like a $20 or $50 bill, instead of just putting the bill in a card, give the amount in coins and put them in a jar or even in a nice piggy bank they can reuse.

I thought this jar looked nice for a Christmas gift because of the colours.  You can use fake grass as they recommend on the Lumenatic website or mini ornaments to fill the jar with the coins so that it is more decorative.  You can even add a label on the jar that says "Shop 'till you drop".

Via Lumenatic

My niece who turns 11 this year loves owls so I may just buy her this owl bank and fill it with coins for her upcoming birthday!

Via Indigo

(3) Use a Jack in the box
Attach the gift card with a ribbon or with glue that doesn't stick too permanently to the hands of the puppet in the box, wrap the box and see the reaction on the person's face when they see the card in the puppet's hand when it finally pops!  This is a great idea if you are giving a gift card to a child ages 3 to 5 years.  Here is my favourite:

Via Indigo

(4) Wrap the gift card with an item from the store you bought the card

Click here for ideas of how to do this on the Happy Clippings website.

Via Happy Clippings

I know iTunes cards are very popular these days so why not give an iTunes card wrapped with a gadget that can be used with an iPhone, iTouch, iPod or iPad.

Be creative and have fun!