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.

Seed of the family tree

Your grandma has grown older by one more year, and her memory of the life lived so far is getting buried deep under the thick deposit of time. Now is the time to help her relive the moments, she once had. Let’s gift her something that she will cherish for rest of her life. We are asking you to give her a custom-made three-dimensional, metallic family tree. The family tree should look like an actual tree with root, stems, shoots, branches, and leaves. It should look as strong as a banyan tree.

Growing the family tree

This super gift has two parts: one ideation and visualization, and another creation (molding). For the ideation part, you may need your grandmother’s assistance, but get her help covertly. And for the creation part, you will need professional caster. Let’s begin with explaining the creation part of the super gift.

The family tree you are going to make for your granny should be made of metal. You can get a gold plating or silver plating done on the family tree. Getting this done will not be difficult nor will be the ideation and visualization part. If you cannot find a professional caster with a creative bend in your locality, you can search the Internet to find the right guy to create this super gift for you. Do not hesitate to ask the caster to show their sample works. Also ask for referrals. This will give you a fair knowledge about their claims and their expertise.

After short-listing 3-4 professional casters, you can begin the ideation part of the custom gift. The first step in the process is to make a list of the names of the people related to your granny, and how they are related. Your list may include the following: Your granny’s Grandfathers (father as well as mother side), her grandmothers (father as well as mother side), her father, her mother, her uncles, her aunts, her husband, her sons and daughters, her grandchildren etc. Though you are including your granny’s grandfathers and grandmothers in the family tree, make sure, she is the center of attraction in the family tree.

Make decorated gold-plated or silver-plated pendants that will contain the pictures and the names of the people you are going to put on the family tree. Make your granny and her husband’s pendant bigger and more attractive, this way you can make her the center of attraction on the family tree.

Make the root, and the stem near the root broad enough to sustain the load of the branches and leaves. Write a personalized message on the front face of the family tree’s base. You can write things like, “The Roots and Shoots of Smith’s Family Tree.” Put the eldest people of the family (grandparents of your granny) on the lowest branch, and on the branches above that put their children (granny’s mother, father, uncles and aunts). Follow the same pattern until you reach the top and you are finished putting every member of your family on the family tree.

The idea behind this arrangement is this: by putting your granny’s grandparents near the root of the tree, you are drawing a visual analogy between the people who are at the root and the root of the tree. You are saying they have provided the vitality necessary to keep the family tree flourishing, and the youngest at the top of the family tree denotes its growing nature.

Custom magazine cover demystified

It has been many years since you have met for the first time, exchanged smiles, looked eyes into eyes, and then there was a perfect Kodak moment. The time stopped, sun dimmed, the stars glittered throwing away brilliant light, and the wind blew lovingly. It was a perfect Kodak moment. What if you could freeze the time there? What if you could make it last longer? What if you could…?

The super gift idea we are going to share will make “your perfect Kodak moment “eternal. This gift is neither for her, nor for you, but this super gift is both of you. We are asking you to gift her a custom made magazine cover for this anniversary. She will be more than delighted to see this gift as well as the sparkle in your eyes and smile on your face.

Custom magazine cover explained

To create this custom magazine cover you will need a working knowledge of image editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Gimp (open source), and page designing software like Adobe PageMaker or Quark Express. To come up with creative lines for the cover, you will need free-flying imagination, and a deep desire to gift your wife a highly personalized creative gift.

The first step in the process of creating this personalized gift is to search for an ideal magazine cover on which you will base the layout and the design of your super gift. Create a base layout for the magazine cover by putting appropriate place-holders for the title, date, month, year, issue, volume, price, featuring attractions, titles of imaginary articles, and the cover image.

Now it’s the time to find an appropriate picture for the cover image. I will suggest you to use the portrait picture that was clicked on the day of your marriage or engagement. Use any image editing software to remove the background from the selected cover image. The image editing software will further be used to optimize the cover image for printing.

The next step is to think of a name for the magazine. Show your creativity and come up with an attractive name that should not lose its charm after a year or two “Our Wedding”, “Marital Bliss”, “Wedding Bells”, “Big Day” etc could be used.

The date, month and year of your wedding should be filled in the appropriate placeholders. Volume for this magazine cover will be ‘one’, and issue will also be ‘one’. In the placeholder for price write ‘priceless’ and besides that write ‘not for sale’. Write ‘Fifth Marriage Anniversary’ or ‘Five Blissful Years’ in the main attraction feature placeholder. Your love message for her will become names of the imaginary articles. An imaginary page number should be placed beneath each imaginary article (love message). Choose a background of your liking and give the final touch to the magazine cover.

Custom magazine creation

Getting this custom gift printed will not be difficult, nor will be framing; still, you need to be careful in choosing the printer and the photo framer. Finding a good quality printer and a photo framer will not be difficult. Enter the appropriate keywords, and any of the major search engines will fetch a huge list containing names, addresses and websites of printers as well as photo framers. Ask for the price-list and samples from each of them. Ask each of them to send you printed samples.

The size of the magazine cover should be at least 20X24 inches, if you want it to be visible from a distance.

Custom calendar idea

As the implied description in the introductory paragraph suggests, this gift will overwhelm your girlfriend/wife. She will be taken over by the emotion, and will be searching all over for the words; instead, she will come and put her arms around your neck planting a passionate kiss on your lips. The idea is to give her a custom-made calendar using her images or the images of the most romantic moments you shared.

Creating the custom calendar

The most important skill required to create this gift is your imagination. You will also need tools like Adobe Photoshop or Gimp (open source), and Adobe Indesign or Quark Express to give a definite shape to your imagination. Start with making the layout for the calendar, but before starting the designing work, you can consider visiting the Internet, and search for the available calendar designs. The objective behind this exercise this activity is to draw inspiration from some professionally made world-class calendar. If you are a designer by profession or passion, and feel you can come up with a really innovative design then skip this step, and move to the next step.

By now, after going through a handful of professional calendars, you must have got idea about what you want to create. If you are still clueless, take a professional calendar of your choice and mimic the layout using Adobe Indesign or Quark Express. Once you are done with creating the basic layout, you should move to dig twelve most beautiful images (one each for one each month of the year) from your digital photo albums (preferably), or from your collections of printed photographs.

Scan the images using at least 300dpi resolution (the higher the resolution better will be the effect), if you have selected printed photographs. Optimize all twelve images for sizes and quality using Adobe Photoshop or Gimp.

The next step is to select the appropriate font for the calendar. If you want you can buy a commercial font, or search for the free versions. Browse through the online font directories or search the Internet to find the font suitable for the mood you want to create.

Take the layout you have created, and use the chosen font to write days, dates, months and year of the calendar. You can use your system’s calendar as a point of reference while creating the custom calendar. Now, it’s time to put images in the designated boxes. You can personalize the super gift even further by adding personal messages as captions to each of the twelve images. A romantic note each on every page of the calendar can also be placed near the bottom. You will need a different font to write the personal message and the romantic note.

Create a cover for the custom calendar using a thin translucent film. Craft a beautiful custom message like the following and write it using a golden or silver handwriting or calligraphy font:

“For my love…

…just to say, how much I love you!

…yours Coochypoo”

Final step

Getting this custom calendar printed will not be very difficult. There are many web-based printers that will help you in getting this custom gift printed. You can even search your local business directory for the printers specializing in this kind of job. Ask for samples and rates, and go with the one who does the best job at the most competitive price. Always remember, this gift is for your love so quality should come first not the price. She will love you for this.

This personalized romantic gift consists of two parts: form and substance (read content). I will begin with discussing substance (content) of this super gift and will move forward towards describing the form.

Writing letter (substance)

More than anything, what’s the content of the message delivered in the bottle will matter more to your girl; hence, you need to cherry-pick the words for the personal message. In this case, focus more on the depth of the message and the eloquence of the writing style, instead of focusing on the length of the message.

The core essence of the message could be a plain heart-felt “I love you”, or it could be “I wanted to say how much I missed you since yesterday evening, when we last met”. Do not make the letter look run of the mill. Letter should not imitate the mechanical phrases written on any greeting card. Make the letter personal as if you have poured your heart into every word written there.

You can use an old-looking paper or a parchment paper to write the personal message, and if you wish you can carefully burn the edge on any one side of the scroll to give the letter an authentic “old world” and “shipwrecked” feel. You can even submerge it into yellowish muddy water to give it a more authentic look.

Crafting bottle (form)

The bottle in which the message will be delivered is not only a delivery vehicle in this case, but it is an integral part of the message. The beauty of the bottle will express how much effort you put in to create this beautiful super gift; hence you should carefully choose the shape of the bottle you will use to deliver the message. Craft a short but elegant personal message and get it laser engraved on the surface of the bottle. Purchase a nice cork, a big alloy key, and also collect some sands, shells and pebbles that will go inside the bottle.

Getting a personal message engraved on the bottle’s surface is not a big deal. You can easily find a person or shop that does laser engraving. You can also search the Internet for the same, and for the bottle, you should visit the antique shop in your city. Alternatively, you can purchase the bottle from online Antique shop. I will suggest going for a fancy-shaped bottle. I would prefer a colorless Egyptian looking bottle. A colored bottle with distinct shape will also serve the purpose. This is basically a matter of personal choice.

Message in the bottle (bringing form and substance together)

First, take the letter with the personalized message and roll it into a scroll. Use a fancy ribbon to tie a knot around it. Keep this letter aside, and take sand, pebbles and shells. Put them inside the bottle. Now it’s time to put the scroll inside before corking it up. Wrap the super gift either in a red, shiny satin, or put it in a red velvet pouch. You can also use red, transparent wrapping plastic.

Instead of using decorative ribbon, you should hang the big alloy key, the key to your heart, in a gold chain or a golden string coiled around the neck of the bottle to make this personalized gift more romantic.

To make the romantic gift more special, you can also consider getting your name and “key to my heart” embossed on the key. This obviously depends upon your taste and your budget.

Concept

How many times did you tell your father how much you love him; what he means to you, and how much you think about him and about what all he did for you? On this Father’s day, say everything you ever wanted to say through a custom made comic book. This super gift will tell your father what a great father he has been so far!

Storyboard

The process of custom comic book creation begins with writing down the things you want to say to your father. Do not write everything that happened while you were growing up; talk about those situations or incidence when your father played a vital role.

Talk about the walks you took with him as a kid when you visited your grandparents. Tell him how much those walks meant to you, and how those walks and several other chit chats helped you understand your life better. Talk about the birthday gifts he gave you. Talk about the sleepless nights he spent by your bedside when you were ill. Tell him that he was your childhood hero. Tell him how you always imitated him while playing games with friends. Tell him, for you, how important are the time that you spent together? Tell him how much you care for him. Say thank you to your father on this Father’s Day through this personalized gift.

Your comic book can include everything said above, or just one or two incidences that explains how much you care for him, and how much he means to you. This custom gift could be of either 4-6 pages or 12-16 pages, or even more. The thickness of the comic book will essentially depend upon the kind of money you want to spend on this super gift.

Dialogues & Characters

The closer you will get to the end of the previous section, the clearer the storyline will become. Now, it is time to do some dialogue writing. As you know, comics are kind of movie storyboards: a visual storytelling device. Hence, unlike in stories, less and less of narration and more and more interpersonal dialogues are used in a comic book. Before writing dialogues for you and your father, who are in the lead role, you will need to consider the role of minor characters as well, and how many of them will be present in your comic book.

Always remember to keep the dialogue part as natural as you can. The word spoken by the character in your comic book should resemble the actual word spoken in day-to-day life by the people you are personifying in the comic book.

Illustration

Unlike the last two sections, which will be done completely by you, you will need help of professional illustrator to do the next section. You can do the illustration yourself, if you know the art of illustration, and if you are not the illustration type, you can seek help of any professional illustrator. Finding one will not be difficult. Do not forget to check the work experience of the illustrator before giving him the illustration job. Ascertain that he is fluent with illustration software like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, etc. as you will need the illustration in digital format for printing,

You will need to provide your childhood pictures, pictures of your father when you were young as well as the pictures of other characters and of locations in which the story is set to put the comic book in the proper context.

Illustrator will take time to create the comic book. Meanwhile, you can search for the printers. You must see the sample works of different printers before trusting him with the creation of this personalized super gift. You can search the Internet and local business directory for quality printers in your locality. You can also seek help of web-based printing companies to get the comic book printed.

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.