When the temperatures start to warm up and the birds and sunshine emerge, our friends trek up to their summer cabin to begin gearing it up for the summer months ahead. The couple bought the cabin a couple years back as a summer home, and are still working on making it a place to call “home”.

I created a little spring-time gift basket for them that includes a few pretty essentials like custom towels, a pretty bottle of hand sanitizer and a gift card that features the lovely combination of May Arts Ribbon and the Oceanside Christine Adolph line from Creative Imaginations!

Customizing regular, inexpensive bath towels was really easy! There have even been a few tutorials here on the May Arts Blog that show you how to do it (like this one here!) which I pretty much followed to a “t”.

I started with a set of beige towels from the local discount store and stitched on the fancy. tan 5/8” sheer/box pleat trim (392-58-09) right down the center. The stitch I chose was small so the thread on the back is basically indistinguishable. Be careful to roll the ends of the ribbon under before starting your stitch. This ribbon, after a few washings, will become so soft, yet still hold it’s pleated shape!

I knew when I saw this tutorial here that I wanted to re-do a bottle of hand sanitizer one day! The perfect opportunity presented itself when I wanted a little something extra to include with the towels and gift card. Hand sanitizer is much needed item around the cabin, so why not make it look a little bit pretty! I peeled the label from the front, used it as a template to cut some beautiful Oceanside Creative Imaginations patterned paper. I inked the edges and adhered it to the bottle with Mod Podge, wiping off any excess around the edges. I finished the look by wrapping the cap and a Creative Imaginations chipboard clam with the same pleated trim from the towels, a bit of the new kraft baker’s twine (412-02) and natural burlap string (SM10).

For the gift card, I cut some card stock and shaped it into a gift card holder, after covering the front panel with some more beautiful Oceanside Creative Imaginations patterned paper. The clasp was decorated with a chipboard sand dollar. I finished the presentation by arranging all the items in a wood crate and filled in the holes with some raffia. I love that there is always a May Arts ribbon or trim that coordinates perfectly with any patterned paper, such as the beautiful Oceanside line from Creative Imaginations! I also love that you can mix and match widths, styles and textures of the ribbons and trims to suite the needs of your project.

Blog post by: Karen Baker