DIY Yellow Sunshine Gift Ideas–and Free Printables!

Make an easy sunshine gift basket or box of sunshine with these fun (and yellow!) ideas. Plus, a free printable sunshine gift tag and a “sending you sunshine” greeting card!

I’ve been a little absorbed in my own world lately, so I thought I’d make a couple gifts to send some “sunshine” to a few friends and neighbors that I haven’t seen or talked to in awhile.

These gifts are the perfect little pick-me-up for a friend who might need some extra cheer or simply a hello from you!

Keep reading for all the yellow items you’ll want to include, and don’t forget to grab your free printables (either a gift tag or card) below!

diy sunshine gift basket ideas

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.


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Box of Sunshine Gift Ideas

I love putting together themed gifts! Having a theme actually makes this super easy to do, even if you think you’re not very crafty.

These DIY gifts don’t have to be terribly fancy or expensive–just snag a couple items in the checkout line of the grocery store and tie on the printable tag below for a fun gift! Or, if you want to go even simpler, just print out the card and mail a quick message to someone instead.

If you’re looking for a more elaborate gift box or care package, just search “sunshine gift” on Pinterest for about a million more ideas–there’s some really cute ways you can decorate a “box of sunshine.”

Yellow Items to Include in a Sunshine Gift Basket: the Ultimate List!

easy diy sunshine gift basket ideas you can make

For the brightest, happiest sunshine gift, you’re going to want your items to have mostly yellow packaging. I would just scan the aisles of your grocery store (or Walmart) for any yellow things that are the right size for your basket or container (I found my containers at Hobby Lobby in the spring clearance section for just a few dollars, but scroll down for more ideas).

If you’re stumped for yellow ideas, I’ve compiled the super handy list below.

*Note: I am not affiliated with any of these brand names

Yellow Candy Ideas

  • Starburst
  • Peanut M&Ms
  • Butterfinger
  • Mr. Goodbar
  • Brightside Skittles
  • Raisinets
  • Juicy Fruit gum
  • Pineapple Twist Trident gum
  • Cool Lemon Ice Breakers Ice Cubes
  • Banana Laffy Taffy
  • Ferrero Rocher
  • Swedish Fish
  • Lemonheads or lemon drops 
  • Lindt Lindor white chocolate truffles
  • Fruit Gushers
  • Pineapple Fruit Roll-Up
  • Yellow Peeps (seasonal)
  • Whoppers Robin Eggs (seasonal)

Yellow Food Ideas

  • Lay’s potato chips (or any other yellow bag of chips)
  • Funyuns
  • Golden Oreos
  • Lorna Doone
  • Vanilla Wafers
  • Wheat Thins
  • Keebler cookies
  • Lemon Jell-O
  • Corn Pops cereal
  • Cheerios
  • Velveeta shells & cheese
  • Popcorn
  • Lemon/yellow cake or muffin mix (see my tips below if you’re making a housewarming gift)

Yellow Drinks and Drink Mixes

  • Lemonade 
  • Crystal Light
  • Kool-Aid
  • Sparkling Ice
  • Pineapple Fanta
  • Gatorade/Powerade
  • Herbal tea (see my tips below if you’re making a get-well gift)

Yellow Non-Food Ideas

  • Yellow nail polish
  • Burt’s Bees chapstick
  • Carmex lip balm
  • eos lip balm
  • Hand cream
  • Loofah
  • Sunglasses
  • Flip-flops
  • Fuzzy socks
  • Mrs. Meyer’s honeysuckle hand soap
  • Pack of Kleenex
  • Hand sanitizer 
  • Wet Ones wipes
  • Play-doh
  • Smiley-face stress ball (I’ve found them at Dollar Tree before)
  • Small toys
  • Subway gift card
  • Post-it notes
  • Notebook

Yellow Decor Ideas

  • Sunflowers, daisies, or other yellow flowers (I just popped a few buds off a cheap bunch of flowers I got at Michael’s on sale)
  • Paper or felt pinwheels (attach to a straw or wood dowel, or tape/tie to the container)
  • Ribbon
  • Yellow tissue paper for filler
  • A gift tag–like the free printable below!

Yellow Container and Basket Ideas For a Sunshine Gift

The first places I usually look for simple gift containers are Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and Dollar Tree (you could also try Joann, Walmart, or Amazon). You may have better luck finding bright yellow containers in the spring/summer as they’re sometimes a seasonal item, and of course it totally depends on what type of container you’re looking for and what size.

Here are a few ideas I’ve found:

And if none of those ideas are working for you and you can’t find anything local, try these ideas:

Recycle a kitchen container (oatmeal canisters, cookie tins, original flavor Pringles cans, etc.) by washing and drying it, and Mod Podging yellow paper or fabric to the outside. Then, tie a yellow ribbon around it or put a yellow gift bow on the lid. Or Mod Podge any other container, like the plain ones from Dollar Tree I mentioned above. (Now that I think about it, a yellow Nesquik container would be perfect for a sunshine gift! My DIY gratitude jar was made from an old Nesquik container!)

Spray paint a wicker basket yellow, or even keep it the original color and weave a yellow ribbon through it and tie a bow (check out how I quickly dressed up my get-well gift basket with ribbon).

Decorate a simple cardboard box with scrapbook paper and embellishments (or even yellow wrapping paper), then line it with yellow tissue paper for a box of sunshine care package.

Add more pops of yellow to any container by adding stickers or vinyl, flowers, tissue paper, or ribbon.

Think outside the box for your gift container (no pun intended). You may find that a purse, beach bag, storage cube, or even tumbler is the perfect way to gift all the yellow goodies to your recipient.

Free Sunshine Printables

free printable sunshine gift tag

This gift tag measures about 2″ by 2″. If you have a circle scrapbooking punch, that will be perfect for cutting this out! Or, you can cut it out with scissors or use your fancy Cricut if you have one.

If you want/need to print out a whole sheet of tags, here is a page of 12 tags (thanks to the readers who suggested this!):

free printable sending you sunshine greeting card

This “sending you sunshine” greeting card measures 8.5″ x 5.5″ unfolded (half of a regular sheet of paper) so once it’s printed, you’ll need to crop it down to those dimensions with a paper trimmer. This card fits in an A2 size envelope.

Tips for printing: make sure your printer is set to borderless printing and scale 100%. Feel free to contact me or leave a comment below if you have any issues!


Want to make your own printables? You can use the free version of Canva here, but I am a huge fan of Canva Pro! I use it for everything!


Ideas to Personalize Your Sunshine Gift

This gift is great for just about any recipient–it’s the perfect gift for a best friend, family member, college care package, and can be customized for any special occasion! I’ve also listed a few ideas below to personalize this even further. You can include any items you want (I would honestly just go to that department in Walmart and search for anything yellow I might want to include), but these are some ideas to get you started.

If I don’t specify that the item is yellow, just assume that it is!

For a get-well gift:

tissue pack, hand sanitizer, Lysol or Wet Ones wipes, herbal tea, lemons (real), honey, cough drops, this mug or this mug, lip balm, fuzzy socks

Click HERE for more Get-Well Gift Basket Ideas

For a housewarming gift:

cleaning supplies (lemon-scented options often have yellow packaging), sponges, Dawn lemon dish soap, dish towels or cleaning cloths, citrus squeezer, silicone whisk, silicone spatula set, yellow/lemon cake or muffin mix, oven mitts

For a baby gift:

baby shampoo, baby outfits, these adorable shoes, banana teether, or this teether (my baby would love this one!), this perfect board book

For the gardener:

seed packets (sunflowers or other yellow flowers), hand trowel, gloves like these, this yellow storage bag, pruning shears

For the crafter:

a half yard of fabric (or even remnants), thread to match, yarn, Mod Podge, paint, stickers (extra points for suns or sunflowers), cardstock or paper pad, washi tape, ribbon, these scissors

How to Make a DIY Sunshine Gift

cute sunshine gift basket you can easily make

And there you go! These sunshine gifts are so much fun to put together and are a thoughtful, cheerful surprise for any lucky recipient!

Now you can go make your own yellow gift boxes and spread a little sunshine around!

Aubree Originals crafts

Don’t forget to pin and save for later!

ultimate list of yellow items for a sunshine gift
sunshine gift basket ideas and printable tag
yellow sunshine gift tags free printable

23 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for sharing these adorable printables and making it so easy to access them! They worked perfectly for some friends. THANK YOU!!

    1. Hi Reta! Sorry for my delay…there is now finally a whole page of tags you can download instead of just the single tag. Thanks so much for the suggestion!

  2. Send me an email and let me know what size you’re hoping for and which image(s) and I’ll see what I can do when I get back to my computer. 🙂 [email protected] But you should also be able to increase the size in your print settings.

    1. I want the ones that say just a little sunshine to brighten your day. And I was hoping about three inches in size. Thank you

  3. I cant get the sunshine stuff to download. Wa. can you email it to me? I need it asap? thanks

  4. Hi Dawn, this is a great question (and I love the idea of teacher appreciation)! I updated the post above with some resources and ideas. I usually look around at local craft stores, but if you’re still coming up empty-handed, I would recommend decorating your own container or gift bag. I like to Mod Podge scrapbook paper to recycled containers, but I have a couple other ideas above–hopefully one of those works for you. (It’s on my to-do list to write a post about decorating containers but I haven’t gotten to it yet!)

  5. This is the cutest diy gift! I decided to put my own spin on it for a teacher appreciation gift for my kiddos teachers. The only problem I’m having is finding a cute tote/bucket 🙁 Any suggestions?

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