Dorm Life Essentials Graduation Gift Basket

My cousin is going off to college in the fall and living on campus.  Since I lived in a dorm years ago, I decided I needed to do a basket filled with things you would need living the dorm life.
I bought a wire waste basket at the dollar store and filled it with the following items along with a tag attached to each of them explaining why he would need them:

Ramen noodles-A staple in any student's room
EZ mac-for when you're tired of eating Ramen noodles
Over the door hook-because you will need every inch of space to hang and store things
A package of pens-because they somehow are always disappearing
Dish soap-for washing dishes in the bathroom sink
Dish scrubber-so you won't have to wash dish rags
Laundry Bag-for carrying all that dirty laundry down 2 flights of stairs to the laundry room
Instant coffee-for the boost of caffeine you will need when you're going on 2 hours of sleep.
Gum-for that inevitable morning you wake up with 5 minutes to get to class and have no time to brush your teeth
Chip clips-because you will need them but will never think to buy them
Bandaids-for the paper cuts you will inevitably get during all night cramming
Air freshner-because at some point there your dorm room will have a stench no one can find the source of.

I was at first hesitant as to whether I wanted to go the gift basket route because lets face it most people give money for graduation gifts and most graduates expect money.  I personally, HATE giving money and gift cards unless they are part of a gift basket.  Don't get me wrong, I love receiving them but I really get enjoyment out of coming up with gifts.  When I talked to my mom  she said most everyone else will give money and he will get plenty so I should do what no one else will do.  I am so satisfied with this gift basket.  I found all of the above items at the Dollar Tree or on clearence at other stores. I spent under $12 and could have done better had I commited earlier to the type of basket I was doing.  I had a few other ideas I had bounced around in my head before deciding on the idea above.  I thought I would include them in case someone was needing some choices.

Bathroom Caddie:  Living in a dorm you are forced to carry all your bathroom essentials in a caddy with you to the shower every day.  My thoughts were to find a caddie and fill it with toothpaste, toothbrush, shave gel, razor, shower gel, shampoo, wash cloths, and flip flops (no one wants to wonder when the last time the showers were cleaned so you wear flip flops to avoid the chances of getting a weird fungus).  This gift basket could be put together for well under $10 if you use coupons and shop the sales at your local grocery stores.

Laundry Basket: laundry detergent, laundry bag, wrinkle releaser (because who has time to iron or space for an iron and ironing board in a dorm), hangers, Fabric refresher spray (for the days you forgot to do laundry and have to wear dirty ones), static cling sheets. clorox pen. shout wipes.

Food goody basket filled with classic college foods: ez mac, ramen noodles, bottled sodas, chips, chocolates, candy, instant coffee, single serve cereal, granola bars, pop tarts, instant oatmeal, microwavable meals, plastic utensils, plates cups and bowls (or paper if you don't want them to worry about washing dishes).

If you know far enough in advance that you will be needing a graduation gift you could look for any of the above items on clearence shelves or if you are a couponer like me, you could use your coupons and shop the sales getting the items nearly free.

Graduation Water Bottle Labels

I finished the water bottle labels for my sister's graduation and I was so happy to be able to mark them off my to-do list.  They took way more time than I thought they would.  The good part is I had my trusty lil Cricut to help me with all the cutting, too bad it doesn't glue too.  Each letter and number was shadowed with the opposite color cardstock.  I bought graduation stickers at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago when they were 50% off so I got 8 pages of stickers for around $3.  I used those to go in the middle of the flower thing (have no clue what else to call them) separating the 2011 and Kayli

After everything was cut and glued I used clear packing tape to cover them, I read somewhere this would make them water proof.  It worked on most but when the party was over I noticed about 6 of the labels had leaked.  We wrapped them around the bottles and used more packing tape to secure them.

And the finished product:

I didn't get a picture of them actually on the bottles since these were the last thing we finished before leaving to set everything up.  I did think these gave the party a personal touch.  I wanted her party to be special and have alot of little touches she wouldn't see at other parties.  With these labels, the centerpieces, cupcake toppers, and cake, I think I accomplished that.

Graduation Cake

Here is the infamous graduation cake I confidently took the on the task of making without a single minutes worth of experience with fondant.

Of course with all the packing necessary the one thing I forgot was my camera so this pic is taken with my cell phone.  I think my sister has the ugliest school colors I've every seen, burgundy and golden yellow.  I made 2 9 inch cakes for the bottom layer and 2 6 inch cakes for the top.  Bottom cakes were chocolate cake with chocolate chip cookie dough filling and oh my goodness was it every delicious.  I don't like to brag on myself but I made one heck of a good chocolate cake.  The top cakes were suppose to be lemon cake with blueberry cream cheese filling.  I made these in cupcake form about a month ago.  Here's a lesson to anyone out there thinking of trying this, don't!  The filling works beautifully in cupcakes not in layered cakes.  I made two beautiful and delicious lemon cakes and was so excited about them, then proceeded to make my buttercream dam and add my filling thinking I was home free, wrong!  As I started filling my chocolate cake i turned around to see the top layer of the lemon cake sliding off and taking some of the bottom layer with it.  So I had to scrape the filling off and use my buttercream icing to fill and glue them together. 

I made homemade marshmellow fondant and it was super easy for anyone out there wanting to try it.  It takes about 10 minutes for one batch and cost less than $5.  I used Wilton food coloring in burgundy and golden yellow which worked perfectly.  Of course I had to make 5 batches to get enought for all the decorations and both the cakes.  Covering each cake with fondant is not as easy as cake boss makes it seem, there were obvious flaws in mine I had to cover with fondant decorations.

All in all I'm very happy the cake is done and everyone raved about how good it tasted which is the most important part.  I wasn't crazy about how the cake looked as a whole and I have sworn off doing anymore tiered cakes until I have taken some classes or something because it is serious work.  I now completely understand why custom cakes are so pricey.

Graduation Gift

My sister is graduating from high school this May, yes I still can't believe it's true.  I still remember the day she was born. Haha.  Now I sound like my grandmother.  Anyways I was trying to rack my brain to come up with a cute gift.  She is going to the community college in the fall so dorm stuff wouldn't work.  I new I would give her some money so she could put that towards books or a laptop but I wanted to give her something cute as well. 

I finally came up with the idea of a Late Night Study Session gift basket.  In it:  Starbucks Frappacino drinks,  to-go coffee mug, mocha instant mix (she has no clue how to make coffee so it needs to be instant haha), Mountain Dew, chips, her favorite candies-Dove chocolates and Sweet Tarts, some study tools like highlighters, pens, permanent markers, and possibly a day planner.  The only other thing I could think of that reminded me of studying late at night was pizza, however I couldn't think of a way to incorporate that into the basket except for a gift card and I wasn't crazy about that idea.

We are on a budget of course, so I had to start thinking of ideas early so I could start looking for clearence items and coupons.  I have already purchased the Frappacinos for $3.99 for a 4-pack, highlighters for $0.58, permanent markers for $0.68, and 5-pack of pens for $2.88.

My mom and I started talking about the graduation party, I agreed to make some poms (courtesy of Martha Stewart), a banner (thanks to my Cricut),  the cake, and centerpieces.  Did I get in over my head?  I just love planning parties and get together's.