Types of Gift Basket Fillers

Video Transcript

"Hi, Chrissy Lyons on behalf of Expert Village. While we're talking about creating gift baskets, there's one element that will always remain the same no matter what basket you use or what theme you choose, there's one staple that you will have in all of them and that is what we call a stuffer or filler. There are several different things that you can use but depending on whether or not you'll be using it to show and it will actually be seen or whether or not you're simply going to use it in the basket to create height and volume for the items that you put in the basket. For those things that will show, I would recommend a packing straw which you can get at any craft store. It comes in the plain like this and you can also get it in the cellophane which I'm sure you've seen at Easter time in pink and green, but it's basically the same consistency. Then you can also use a tissue paper and of course again, you can color coordinate it with whatever you have going on in the basket itself or you can get the little flecked ones and you can use several sheets and crumple it up and that's really pretty. Then for items that you will put in the bottom just to give it height and volume, you have a choice also. You can use the good old Styrofoam peanut which is just that, it's Styrofoam, but nowadays they're also making a cornstarch based peanut that is biodegradable so a lot of places are not using this anymore because it is not biodegradable. The ones that look like the corn kernels are cornstarch. These ones are the Styrofoam. And you can break them up and smash them in. Also, you can get good old packing paper and just crinkle that up and put it in. And again, remember, this stuff you do not want to show, it just gives you the height. Then if all else fails and you've got nothing else around the house, you can always just come up with good old plastic publics bags and use three or four in the bottom of each basket. There you have it, the main staple for no matter what kind of basket you're making. Have fun."