What’s the idea?

The gift idea I am going to discuss here is aimed to achieve that goal only. We are discussing here about gifting customized office stationary to your dad, granddad, husband, boyfriend, or to any loved one. The idea is to make your loved one’s office space look more personal by making small changes in the environment in which he or she works. I am asking you to gift a set of personalized office stationary. This gift will always keep you at the back of his or her mind while she is busy creating that important presentation, or churning out the last quarter’s sales report. Customizing the office stationary is not going to be very difficult.

What to brand?

Let’s start the process with customizing the mouse pad then move to personalizing paperweight, passing through a personalized coffee mug.

How to do it?

To create a customized office stationary, all you need to do is to create the design, and the rest of the work can be outsourced to the company specializing in creating customized stuffs. There are many such service providers on the Internet, just Google it and you will get a list of companies that will help you create a customized coffee mug, mouse pad, and even paperweight. You can locate these custom printers in a shopping mall as well.

Custom Mouse Pad

To create a custom mouse pad, you need one or more photographs: multiple pictures, if you want to make a collage of pictures reminding the recipient of the wonderful time he spent with you in the years gone by, and one picture, if you want to elicit just one emotion by reminding the recipient of any one particular occasion.

The first step in the process of creation is to optimize the picture using Photoshop, or any similar software, after that resize the image to size of the mouse pad. You can also include the message that you want to convey, or some design element to make it more beautiful. You can consider using some vector floral borders, or may be consider using some abstract border to beautify the mouse pad.

Custom Paperweight

I will suggest using minimalistic design for the paperweight; rather no design at all, just a small message and a very light, engraved border at the bottom of the text. I will suggest you to use a stainless steel paperweight for this purpose; one that has velvety base. You can go for any shape: square, round, hexagonal, or you can also use heart-shaped paperweight. Write a one-line message using calligraphic font, and add a very light border at the bottom of the text. The message can be anything, you may want: “Love You Dad,” “Miss You,” “Thinking about You,” etc. The only consideration should be the length of the message. It should not exceed 4-5 words in length. Do not go for the obvious one that I wrote above, be creative and let your personal touch be felt through the message.

Custom Coffee Mug

Personalizing a coffee mug is the easiest of all as lot many companies and even small shops in big shopping malls offer such services. I will suggest using a picture on the coffee mug, rather two pictures. One of the person whom you are gifting the customized office stationary, and the second one will be your, or may be of the person the recipient likes most. Use a three-word message as well, and that’s it. But before sending the pictures off for printing on the coffee mug, optimize it for quality and size using Photoshop.

I will eat whatever you cook; I will sleep wherever you prepare my bed; and I will wear whatever you make for me! This is the kind of emotion the gift idea I am suggesting here is going to elicit in the recipient. This super gift provides you an opportunity to make your partner or loved one realize how much you care, and to what length you can go to make him feel special.


One of the best ways to make your partner feel special is to create something especially for him. What about designing a t-shirt with a personalized message printed in a cool looking font? Sounds good, isn’t it? This is the super gift idea I am suggesting here for your partner or loved one.

Perfect for Female and Male

This gift can be given to a person of either of the sexes. You can give it to your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. You can even give this gift to you father, or mother. A possibility of giving this present to your best friend, son and daughter can’t also be rules out.

Gift for Every Occasion

Ideally, I will suggest giving a personilized t-shirt on the person’s birthday, but again it is not bound by the occasion.

Great Design with Simple Equipment

To make this super gift, you will need to have an eye for design, an ability to come up with a nice, clever line, one or more clip-art images, an ability to do some basic illustration, and on top of it, some free time to devote. This gift will not require any fancy equipment; all you will need is age old pen or pencil, ruler, sharpener, eraser, and paper. If you are comfortable working with illustration software like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw then you can consider using it as well.

First Step: Conceptualize the T-Shirt

The first real step in the process is to conceptualize the t-shirt you want to make, but the process starts with learning about the anatomy of a t-shirt. If the recipient of your gift is a man then there will not be much complicacy about the design, but if the intended user of the super gift is a woman than the measurements and cuts will require more careful consideration.

Once you are home with the anatomical details of a t-shirt; now it’s time now to come up with the design concept. You should have a clear idea about what you want to convey through the t-shirt, before looking for the design elements. The design concept will give you an inkling of what you want to show, what you want to say, and what means to use to do so. This knowledge will work as an anchor, when you search for an image, clipart, or when you carve your personal message in a sentence – use maximum five or six words for this as the space is limited.

Take the design elements, and put them on the appropriate places on the t-shirt and you are done. Getting your t-shirt printed will not be difficult as there are many web-based services that provide custom t-shirt printing services. Just upload your design and place an order. You can get your t-shirt printed in any color you like, and in any size you want.

Who Can Give this Gift?

As this gift is unisex in nature, this can be given by anyone. Your willingness to devote time to create this super gift is the only prerequisite for giving this super gift.

Other occasion

In my view, birthday is the most suited occasion for this gift idea to be given, but this is not the only occasion you can gift a custom made t-shirt to your loved one. You can even choose friendship day to give this cool gift to your best friend.

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 perfect 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 perfect 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.

Personalized gift idea

You can provide many reasons, if “why do you give a gift” question is asked, but each one of us will at least agree when I say, we gift because we care for the recipient, or at least we want to convey that we care for them. The super gift I am suggesting here will do exactly that. It will tell your beloved how much you care for her, and to what length you can go for her. I am asking you to make her birthday special for her by personalizing her environs. Make her feel special and pampered today.

Personalizing her surroundings

You will not need many tools to create this super gift. All you will need is lots of time and love for your wife. The idea is to make your presence felt on her birthday despite the fact that you are 500 miles away from her fulfilling your official duty. Word of caution: Do not let your plan leak out. If she gets to know about your intention, the fun of giving this gift will be gone. Surprise is the main ingredient. You have to perform as an undercover gifting agent. Take sufficient time in your hand to make her birthday special. You can give this gift even if you are with her, in the city.

Start with morning, and make a list of things she typically does after waking up. See what all you can modify. If she wakes up and goes directly to the bathroom to wash her face, a surprise should be waiting for her near the bathroom’s wash basin. A message like, “Good morning honey, you look beautiful today. Happy birthday! A tight hug!” could be placed there. If her second step is to fetch water from refrigerator, a rose with your message should be waiting there to greet her good morning. If this step is followed by going to kitchen for tea, a card, or just a message saying how much you miss her tea today should be placed beneath the tea container.

Make a list of the work she does in the afternoon, evening and night; at office, at home and see what all you can customize. Do not rush to wish her happy birthday yet, let the gift culminate up to a very warm happy birthday in the night. You should not forget to customize her cell phone ring tone, alarm clock, landline’s ringtone, and also leave a warm message in the answering machine preprogrammed to play when she leaves for work. The car she drives should have an I love you card waiting on the driving seat, and her music player should also play your message followed by her favorite music (or the music that has a romantic value for both of you) once she turns the ignition on.

Send flowers to her office and a big cake to your home in the evening. Ask her friends to send her your love, when she reaches office. You can also ask her cell phone company to call her and greet her, and to play her favorite tune after calling her. Arrange for sweet, lovely message as well. You can buy a short messaging pack and ask the seller to send her some beautiful messages at sporadic intervals. This custom gift will keep her happy and entertained throughout the day. She will feel, you are right there, beside her, all day, despite your being out of town on business.

Her day should culminate on your calling her, just after she enters home and sees the cake. Call her and just say, “Happy Birthday”. It will do the magic, her eyes will become moist, her voice will quiver, and her heart will be over joyous.

You can also think of installing 2-3 cameras one each in the bedroom, kitchen and living room to record her expressions and reactions. Preprogram the camera based on her daily routine, and watch the recoding with her once you are back. On the cost of repeating I must say: surprise is the key element of this personalized super gift. If the plan is leaked, the super gift will not have the desired effect.