Dear, I am on the front page, they liked my story! Isn’t it exciting to see your kid, who has just turned 18, jumping around, calling people, and going ballyhoo about the gift he has just received on his 18^th birthday? This idea will make him do all this.

Gift Idea

The year in which a person turns 18 is the most exciting time of the person’s life. He or she has just taken the first step into adulthood, and this custom gift will thrill him/her to the bones. A personalized newspaper will make him/her feel special. It is his day, and let us make this day memorable for him.

Print excites people and everyone like to see him or her in prints. This indeed is the idea behind crafting this authentic looking personalized newspaper, and gifting it on the recipient’s 18^th birthday.

Content

The first step in the creation process is to make a layout for this custom gift. The first step in the process is to gather information, and pictures you want to include in the newspaper. I am using the word gather because like almost all of us, you were busy working when your kid was growing, and chances are you have missed many things, and occasions that are valuable to him/her. This is the time to payback. Gather information about the important incidence that has happened to him/her in last 18 years.

The next step is to synthesize the information and the images collected for the customized newspaper into a series of articles. Each article will be talk about one aspect of his or her life. Keep the article short, simple, and exciting to read. If you cannot write an exciting article on your own, hire a professional to do this job. I will suggest against using a serious tone to write any of the articles; remember no one likes preaching. You can convey the exact same meaning in slightly less serious words. I will suggest giving the reader a comic relief while conveying the message you want to convey. Fun is the best way to convey any meaning.

As for the images, you need to shortlist one primary image, which will work as an attention grabber, and couple of secondary image to support the articles wherever it required. You need to optimize the image for print using Adobe Photoshop or any other graphic designing application. You can hire someone to do this job as well, if you are not good at handling image enhancement applications.

Layout

Once all the content is ready, it is time to put them together and make a front page of the newspaper. We begin the process with creating a wireframe that will get filled with the content (articles and the images) created above. In this layout, you should also have a space for solus advertising. This space will fulfill two functions. On the one hand, it will make the newspaper look more authentic, while on the other hand it will give you a space to do some direct communication in the form of advertisement. The message posted in the solus advertising can be a direct message from you wishing him a happy 18^th birthday, or it can be any other personalized message. Get this message designed by the same person who has done the Photoshop work.

Creation

Once the articles and images are placed in the layout your newspaper is ready. It is time to get it printed. This isn’t difficult; any printer in your locality will do this job. You can also search the Internet for assistance. The printer might ask for a specific file format to print. A page layout made in Quark Express is widely accepted. You can also use other page design application for the purpose. As for the name, I will suggest using, “The Birthday Times”.

Distribution

It’s a decision time. You can either use the regular newspaper delivery channel to get this newspaper to your kid, or you can frame it in a picture frame and gift it wrapped in a shiny piece of birthday-gift wrapping paper. In my view, you should adopt a mix of both. Talk to your newspaper delivery guy couple of days in advance about your plan, and give him the newspaper to be delivered on the day before the birthday. The custom newspaper should be packed in such a way that your kid’s image remains visible from a distance. In the morning of the D-day, ask your kid to go out and bring that day’s newspaper.

You can get one more copy of this personalized newspaper printed and framed using a classy black photo frame. Give your kid this gift right after he cuts the cake. The newspaper used for framing should be bigger in size than the one you got delivered in the morning. The newspaper should be visible from a distance as your kid is going hang it on his bedroom’s wall.

NOTE: For convenience’s sake, and to keep the article legible, I have used the pronoun “He, himself, and his” at place where I wanted to use “He or she, himself/herself, and his/her”. You can give this gift to your daughter as well on her marriage.

The first step idea

Marriage is your son or daughter’s first step in the new life where he will meet new people, new happiness, new opportunities, new thrill, new compromises, new challenges, etc. This is the best time to tell him about how to shoulder new responsibility, and to stay as cheerful and smiling as he has ever been. And to make him understand this, what could be a better way than telling him about the success he himself had at various junctures in life! Gift him an account of all the first steps he took in his life in the form of a beautifully constructed The First Step Journal.

The first step explained

To do the technical work required for this personalized gift, you will need a page designing software like Adobe Indesign, or Quark Express to design the pages of The First Step Journal, and you will need any image editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Gimp (open source) to do the photo retouching and enhancement work.

For the content of this super gift,  you will need a recollection of every first step that your son took: the day when your kid came to this world; the first day when he crawled; the day when he took his first step; the day when he first spoke; the day when he called you dad/mom; his first birthday; his first day at school; the day when he won a cup/medal in sports; the day when he became an adult; his first vacation with family; his first day in college; the day when he graduated; his first day in office etc.

Along with this, you will also need a collection of photographs of your son taken at different junctures of his life. You can include the picture you clicked on different occasions: when he was born; on his first birthday; when he took his first step; on his first family vacation; on his graduation day, etc. In short, I am asking you to collect the pictures of all the “first step” occasions of your son’s life. If you do not have pictures of every occasion then you can replace it with a picture clicked on a nearby date or in the same month or maybe in the same year.

Select the pictures and occasions you want to include in the first step journal, and begin working on it. Start with creating a layout for the journal pages because this will give you a tentative idea about the size of the image to use, and how many words will comfortably fit in the layout alongside the image. After finalizing the layout, begin with writing “the first step” pages. Use a language that mimic a combination of greetings-card style and motivational writing. This step should be followed by optimizing the image for the journal.

Put everything in the layout and recheck everything, and the journal is ready for printing, but before going for printing, let’s have a word about the quality of paper, quality of cover page and the binding. I will suggest you to use high-quality matt finished photo papers for the journal pages, and will also suggest you to get it laminated once the printing is done. For cover, you can use a velvety paper, or slightly thin, glossy card-board paper. Just write the words like “The First Step Journal – your journey so far…. On the Occasion, when you are about to Begin Your Life’s Most Important Journey. With Best Wishes from Your Mom and Dad.”

The work is complete, now search for a good quality printer and get the journal printed.  There are good quality web-based printers available that do remarkable job. I will recommend digital printing for the purpose.

The custom blanket Idea

When we marry, we have many things to take care of. We are starting a new family, so we need to buy a number of small and big things for daily uses. Hence, I am suggesting here a custom gift that not only will protect them, keep the newly-wed couple warm, and create a cozy environment for them in the favorite corner of their room, but it will also strike one important thing out from the couple’s to-buy list. This way you will help the newly-wed couple in starting a new life. A blanket with a personalized message woven in the corner is the gift I am suggesting you to give to your friend, friend’s son/ daughter or, family friend’s son/daughter on his or her wedding. It will help them in starting a new life, and this super gift will last many years that essentially means you will not be forgotten for years to come.

Personalizing the blanket

The process of creating a personalized blanket starts with writing the personal message you want to put at the corner of the blanket. Write a small message wishing the couple happy married life and sign the message with your name’s initials. Keep the initials at the corner and use a very small font to write them. Make the initials almost invisible. Do not make the initials visible from distance. How many people do you know who will like to use any gift that has the name (s) of the giver prominently visible from a distance?

While crafting the personal message, always remember, the custom gift you are giving will be used for many years, so an attempt should be made to make the message timeless. The meaning of the message should not lose relevance after a passage of time.

Once the message is ready, it’s time to shop for the blanket. The size, design and the quality of the blanket depends upon your taste and budget. If you want your personalized gift to be of some practical value for the recipient, buy the blanket that suits the recipient taste. You do not need to go very far stretching your budget. You can do this within your budget as well. All you need to do is some research.

The next step in the creation of this super gift is printing or weaving and stitching of the personal message at the corner of the blanket. As you guessed, I am suggesting here two options: either you can get the message woven by a professional embroidery maker at the corner of the blanket, or you can get it printed on a 4X4 inches leather piece, or velvet cloth, etc.

The look and feel of the output will depend upon the quality of the embroidery maker for the former alternative and the quality of printing company for the latter option. Finding neither a good quality embroidery maker will be difficult, nor will finding a good reliable company to make a squarish label be nerve-wracking.

Do not forget to ask question. Ask as many questions as you want to ask while purchasing blanket or shopping for a professional or a company to get the message part created and affixed to the blanket. Get a nice wrap for the super gift and a broad smile for your lips before entering the marriage party.