With a little creativity, you can do many things with these walnut shell cases. You can insert a poem, a fortune, movie tickets, or a photo. You can also tear paper-based inserts into several pieces that are put into separate walnut shells: the recipient will have to piece them together. How about good luck charm, a coin, or paper money. If a few people are sharing a special occasion, you can give a bunch of these shells and let them alternate choosing and opening shells. Many photograph developing shops are providing photo-jigsaw-puzzle services. You provide a photo or printed sheet and they return a jigsaw puzzle of the photograph: you can put each individual piece in its own shell. Make sure that the pieces are small enough to fit within your batch of walnuts!

You may want to think about the significance of the act of removing a shell (becoming more open, honest and forthcoming) and tie it in with the poem you include. We made a nutcracker holder made out of oiled walnut wood, then threaded some twine through a drilled hole in the holder. We tied knots at each end of the twine and glued the shells around the knots with half of a poem in each. See the image on the right.

You can give a special stuffed walnut along with a group of ordinary walnuts; the recipient would have to try opening many of them before discovering the unique one. If you do this you may have to experiment with putting some extra weight inside so that the embellished walnut feels real. We have incorporated this concept into our treasure hunt project.

Walnut shells also make a great party favor that your guests will only discover the contents when they return home: it can be as simple as a note reminding them of the gathering. Or for a joke, you can fit an almond or peanut inside (as shown on the right); you'll get some surprising reactions. If you have any additional ideas, please let us know.