A gift for the Boss that has everything!

It's that time of year again, when my co-worker and I ask each other, "What are we getting our Bosses for Christmas?"  We work for a guy who owns real estate and his wife works with us in the office.  These are the quintessential "people-that-have-everything-they-ever-wanted-or-needed-so-what-the-heck-do-you-get-them" people!!  Last year we put a lot of thought into their gifts and while I think they really appreciated them, I am just not sure they got any use out of them.  I really hate to get people gifts that will sit around and be useless (unless they're collector's of useless crap), so the challenge was on! 


I knew I wanted to get them an awesome experience, something to do that, hopefully, they'd never done before.  You know, create memories instead of accumulate more stuff to set around.  But again, they are goers-and-doers, they like to be active so I knew this challenge might not be easy to accomplish. My co-worker, who happens to be one of my really good friends, thought of a rock climbing experience.  We researched it and found a local indoor rock climbing place and it was affordable; however, I thought that's good, but I just don't think that's IT.


Then it hit me...a helicopter ride! Again, we researched it and made calls, but it was too expensive!!! 


That idea led me to my second idea...a hot air balloon ride! Once again, we researched it and while it was not as expensive as the helicopter ride it was still out of our reach since we waited too long and Christmas was only one payday away.  This was my favorite though, so I told my co-worker-friend that we need to save up for next year and do this! Which makes me really happy since we won't encounter this dilemma for at least 2 more years!!! 


Next, I looked to my trusty friend Google.  Google is my go-to in any case of searching.  I simply typed in "giving the gift of an experience"...now you may laugh but anyone who knows me knows I am champion Googler.  I Google for all occasions and all bits of information I don't know.  My co-worker and I can start to search for something at work and I inevitably find it first, which really irks her. Or, I can allow her to search something and when she doesn't find it I will go right to it; again, this really irks her.  So in this search I found a website that specializes in gifting experiences, that's in their tagline!! I scrolled through tons of pages and found everything from Indy car driver for the day to hiring a personal chef for a special meal.  You can even fly a fighter plane in a simulated air fight and you don't have to have a pilot's license.  There were so many choices but alas they were either not close to home, a little bizarre or too expensive.    


That's when I found it; I hit 'next page' and there it was staring at me.  I sheepishly said, "I think I found it."  To which she replied, "What?"  I am sure she wasn't confident in my announcement since I had just rattled of a litany of crazy experiences that we'd never choose.  But, when I said,"a murder mystery dinner show!" she actually paused with careful consideration.  That pause spoke to me and said, "Ding ding ding we have a winner!"  After little debate and hesitation we agreed, this was definitely IT! 


Feeling that the presentation of any gift is the most exciting element, I knew exactly how I wanted to present it.  That, and we didn't have time to wait for shipment of the certificate in the mail.  This is how we presented our bosses with their experience last night at our Christmas dinner.

It's an altered cigar box!!!

Because we were giving them a murder mystery dinner show experience we thought using Clue as our theme would be fun!

I used a glitter chipboard frame to highlight the title Clue.  I used layers of flowers and inked them to make them look rustic.  I also placed the arrow in the bottom right corner and foot print stickers because I thought it was cute.

This cigar box had writing on both outer sides so I painted the bottom half of the box black and then applied distressed crackle paint for a really cool effect!  I also applied distress stain onto the dried crackle paint.

I lined the inside with red velvet paper.

This is my favorite part! I envisioned a card that opened from different sides announcing the gift.  This is the top, I thought the blood splat and question mark would have them really wondering what they were getting!

After lifting the top of the card straight up, this was the first thing they'd see.  That was the name of the website we purchased from, but again, with them not knowing that they'd still be in suspense.  I also placed a line of rhinestones along the bottom that made it sparkle.

The first flap opens to the right, revealing the next, pictured here.  This was on the emailed certificate and I thought it was very fitting since I'd originally Googled for gift "experiences!"

The final flap opened to the left to reveal the gift inside!  

Now we included the certificate that was emailed to us under the shreds at the bottom of the box so that she has her purchase code and directions on how to redeem.  But I was so excited to create what I envisioned and even more excited that they REALLY liked it! My boss even said she may have me make another so she can gift it to her Mom and Step-Dad since she was having a hard time figuring out what to get them!! (Hmm...I know the feeling! LOL)

Until next time, I'm going to...

Hide n' Go Scrap!