Give your gift baskets a touch of polish and professionalism with shrink wrap.
How Do You Shrink Wrap A Gift Basket?
In four simple steps, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about wrapping your next gift basket with shrink wrap!
Here’s What You’ll Need
- Gift Basket (For the holidays, we made our own DIY Hot Chocolate Kit!)
- Dome Shrink Wrap
- Shrink Wrap Heat Gun
How To Shrink Wrap A Gift Basket Like A Pro
1.) Preheat your heat gun to its lowest setting.
2.) As your heat gun is warming up, completely cover your gift basket with your shrink wrap.
3.) Once your heat gun is ready, point the nozzle away from you and toward the surface of your plastic.
4.) As heat is applied to the surface of your plastic, it should begin to shrink. In long, sweeping motions, use your heat gun to disperse heat along the surface of your wrap. Repeat along the surface of your gift basket until fully shrunk.
Tip 1: Keep It Movin’
If the heat gun stays in one spot for too long, the plastic has a chance of melting. To ensure an even and consistent surface, maintain a slow and even motion over the wrap until it’s shrunk to size.
Tip 2: The Heat Gun Will Get Very Hot
It is very important to remember that when you’re using a commercial grade heat gun, the tip of the gun can get extremely hot. Our heat guns can get up to 1000°F.
Tip 3: There’s No Need To Cut To Size
At first glance, the plastic bags, shrink film, or shrink bands may look big and oversized, but as the plastic heats up, they will shrink to size.
The Big Debate: Hair Dryer Vs. Heat Gun
If you were wondering which tool to use for wrapping gift baskets, hair dryers or heat guns, let us help with a visual, and some sound advice.
Our Opinion: Heat Guns Are The Best
Overall, if you have enough time to spare, and if you have a hair dryer that can produce enough heat at a fast enough rate, your shrink wrap will melt. However, if you want fast, sleek, professional results consistently, we recommend using a heat gun.
Hi- I was wondering if you know of places that will shrink wrap for you. I have 7 dvd’s that I want shrink wrapped. Hope you can help. I live in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Thank you in advance
Corinne Tapp
Hi Corinne! Awesome question. We definitely have all the supplies you would need to shrink wrap your DVDs and offer direct shipping to Canada. For personalized help, please give us a call at 800.745.8800, ext 2. Our Customer Care team is available Monday through Friday from 6:00AM – 5:00PM PST.
Hair dryers DO work, but perhaps a little slower. The demonstrator did not hold the dryer close enough to the basket on her attempts. And-how do we know she didn’t have the setting on “cool”? ; )
Hi Jayne! haha Fair point. Rest assured, we tried to get our hair dryer as hot as possible for this comparison. We totally agree though, a hair dryer can definitely work for shrink wrap and if it works best for you, we support! For what it’s worth, our own preferences are for a heat gun. The speed and heat consistency is hard to beat!