17 Creative Ways to Give Gift Cards That Will Impress the Recipient

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Even before you say it- I agree, gift cards, sometimes, are the best gift to give. But dang, it’s so hard to make a great impression with them even if it’s an awesome find. Well, worry not, here are some genius creative ways to give gift cards that will truly impress the recipient and beat out the rest of the BIG gift boxes at the party!!

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17 Creative Ways to Give Gift Cards

Here are some clever ways to make your gift card stand out in the crowd of big gift boxes!

1. Add Hilarious Ideas How They Can Spend The Amount

Giving them a cash card or gift card from a large department store? Make it more interesting by adding some hilarious (or some actually useful) ideas suggesting what they can buy with the gift card.

Use post-it notes to add your suggestions (makes life much easier). Place it a nice gift box (confession time- I have used a small delivery box from Amazon for this, but I wrapped it NICELY of course) or use clear cellophane bag and add a large bow to it.

The recipient might rip open other’s gift, say thank you to the giver, and move on. BUT they will definitely spend the most time enjoying your creative gift!

2. Gift Card in a Haystack Game

Hide gift card in a bag full of hay

Inspired by the famous idiom ‘finding needle in the haystack’, this game will be plenty of fun for the recipient to play (hopefully) and even more fun for the guests to watch.

Take a large sack or bag and fill it up with a lot of hay. Other alternatives to hay could be dried leaves, flower petals (plenty of tutorials online on how to quickly press and dry flowers in microwave so you can make a lot, fast! Great idea if it’s a romantic occasion) or shredded colored paper.

Drop the gift card in the bag. Ask the recipient to dig through to find their gift. Shhh… don’t tell them it’s a gift card, let it be a surprise!!

3. Hide Card in Balloons for a Birthday Surprise

hide gift card in balloons for birthday

This one is perfect for a birthday party, and you would need balloons… LOT of them!

How many balloons? ideally, you can have as many as you want but you can also choose according to their age, for instance- 30 balloons, if they are turning 30 and so on.

Tell the recipient you couldn’t think of a gift so you brought them balloons to celebrate their inner child. Ask them to burst the balloon one by one to check if they are lucky enough to get something else.

Another idea is to tie the balloons around the house so they will need to run around popping balloons before they find their gift.

Ask other guests to join the game and suggest which balloon to pop next.

The recipient and all the attendees would have so much fun guessing which balloon to pop until one reveals your gift card.

4. Clever Tip for Travel Themed Gift Card

Are they moving to a different state/ country, going on honeymoon, vacationing, etc.? Such occassions are perfect for giving gift cards. Here is a unique idea that will add some jazz to your gift.

Pick out some coasters with images of the place they are traveling or moving to, tie your gift card on top of the coasters with help of baker’s twine or ribbon. 

It can also make for a great parting gift for a friend or coworker.

5. Tip for Housewarming Gift Card

For the king or queen of the house! Take a poster board (you can buy it cheap from dollar store). The bigger you go, the better!

Title the poster board ‘for the king/ queen of the house’.

Cut out colored paper sheets in the shape of house, car, kitchen items, furniture, etc., making sure the cut outs are large enough to hide a gift card behind.

Stick these cut outs on the poster board and hide the gift card behind one of the cut outs.

They can keep guessing and checking all the cut outs on your poster board till they find a gift card under one.

P.S: You can hide the card behind picture of a kitchen appliance if you would like them to buy something for their kitchen with the gift card or just leave the decision to them.

6. Another Tip for Housewarming Gift Card

gift card in box full of dried lavender for housewarming

Place the gift card in an organza bag or a box. Fill it with dried lavender or their favorite flower petals. I used dried lavender from my mom-in-law’s garden so if you have some growing in your garden make use of it!

Don’t forget to add a ribbon and a note to your gift.

I decided to go with dried lavender since it can be used around the house easily. They can easily repurpose it to enjoy it in several different ways-  keep it in their drawers or closet so their clothes smell great all the time, keep it in decorative jars around the house to make their house smell great, etc.

7. Creative Way to Give iTunes Gift Card

For an iTunes gift card, here is an artistic way to make it stand out.

Use an old CD and CD cover. Make a collage of their favorite singers on the CD and attach the gift card in the middle.

Tip: You can try to look for old CDs in thrift stores in your area.

Any CD will do since most probably they don’t have a CD player anymore OR once you are done decorating the CD, let’s just say, it will no longer be good for the intended use anyways.

If you don’t have access to a CD, then you can also use a large poster board to make the collage. Wrap it up nicely so it looks like a giant photo frame. Then just wait to see the look on their faces when they open it.

8. Tip for A Lottery Player

Do they love to play lottery? Make the gift a double surprise for them by adding some lottery tickets along with their gift card.

Pick different lotteries to make your gift more colorful and attractive. You can use a poster board to do this or even a good old mason jar.

9. Set Up a Mini Scavenger Hunt

Set up a mini scavenger hunt at the end of which they can find their prize- the gift card!

You can also set up a grand scavenger hunt! It is totally up to you how hard you want the recipient to work to get to their gift.

10. Box of Surprise

Use an old cardboard box, fill it with confetti and place your gift card in the box. Wrap it up nicely and you’re done! You can go as BIG as you want with your box to beat out the rest of the gift boxes.

11. Gift Card with Wine Bottle

If you are gifting a bottle of wine with your gift card. Wrap the gift card and attach it to one end of an orange stick, then stick the other end of the stick into the cork.

Wrap the wine bottle with wrapping paper and your gift is ready!

You can also use pom-poms on top end of the stick to add more glamor and style.

12. Lazy Man’s Creative Way

jar full of candy with gift card

Fill a mason jar with their favorite candy with your gift card inside. Tie a ribbon on it- make it look pretty!

I said LAZY man’s creative way since the idea came from my husband, ha ha!

I love simple ideas like these that use mason jars, because I LOVE mason jars for diy gifts. You can add pretty much anything to them even small alcohol bottles (perfect for anyone turning 21).

The best part is that the recipient can always repurpose the mason jar around the house. And oh, if you don’t know already- check out your nearest dollar store for these jars.

13. Chocolaty Surprise

Hide the gift card inside the chocolate wrapper, the OUTER covering, not the silver/ gold wrapper that covers the actual chocolate.

Stick a large bow on the chocolate and see everyone’s reaction as you gift the chocolate bar to the recipient with all the pomp!

Don’t forget to tell them ‘I know you will enjoy it more than any other gift here’… uhm… you can also skip saying it!

Ways to Gift Multiple Gift Cards

Planning to gift a bunch of gift cards to your staff members, family, etc.? Here are some adorable ideas that make it easy to make the gift cards seem more presentable and exciting.

14. Bouquet of Gift Cards

Stick the gift cards on flower-shaped paper cutouts. Then tape these flower cut-outs on one end of the orange stick.

(I do recommend choosing cardstock paper for flower cutouts since it is sturdier than regular paper. But, if you are in a pinch, go for what you have at hand).

Prepare all gift cards like that.

Tie them in a bunch and place inside a vase with a big ribbon around it. You can fill the vase/ jar with some jellybeans, so the sticks stay in place.

Tip: If you want, you can always add a sweet message for your coworkers on the backside of the paper cutouts. You can add note of appreciation or a sweet message for the holidays.

15. The Pizza Box Surprise

Take an empty pizza box or donut box.

Open the box and place all the gift cards, along with small handwritten notes, under the top cover so that when the recipients open the box they see the cards on the underside of the top lid.

You can choose to fill the box with homemade cookies, donuts, actual pizza, etc.!

It’s such a fun way of giving your coworkers gift cards for the holidays!

Just make sure to cover your gift cards and notes in some clear plastic.

Also, check out –do gift cards make a good gift idea

16. Pop Up Surprise Box

Pizza box surprise

Take an empty box and some wire springs. Stick each gift card on one end of the spring. Tape the other end of the spring inside the box.

Close the box with the gift cards attached on wire springs inside.

It is important that you choose the size of the spring such that when the box is opened all the gift cards bounce out of the box a bit.

The recipients will be thrilled even before they open their gift cards.

Tip: I don’t recommend pizza or donuts for this one. For hygiene concerns, it is safer to add candies since they are individually wrapped.

17. Gift Card Bearing Tree

This one is so much fun. You will have an amazing time making it!

Nothing screams Christmas, like Christmas trees. They are such a big part of the holiday season that I thought this one is perfect for the holidays.

If you are giving out gift cards to your staff during the holiday season for Christmas, then head out to the dollar store near you and buy a small plastic Christmas tree. 

Hang all the gift cards with the name of the recipients or their pictures on the tree. You can also decorate the tree with some cheap battery-operated fairy lights to make it look extra special.

Set the tree at your desk or pantry before the staff starts to show up so you can see their surprised faces as they roll in.

P.S: This will also work for families, your church group, etc.

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It all sounds like a little bit of effort but now you know how easy it is to make even a small gift (by size) stand out. I hope you liked these creative ideas for presenting gift cards that will delight the recipient. 

17 creative and clever ways to present a gift card and even multiple gift cards. Perfect for surprising a recipient on their birthday, housewarming, etc., or your staff at work for the Holidays

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