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.

The lovey-dovey wedding idea

The super gift idea that I am sharing here will make the marriage of your son/daughter/friend not only personal but very, very memorable. I am asking you to personalize his or her wedding by distributing bride’s as well as groom’s favorite candies and cookies among the guests attending the marriage, along with a note stating the sweet, little story behind the candies and cookies distribution. If you want, you can also get one childhood photo of the bride as well as of the groom printed on the cover-side of the note.

This activity will not only involve everyone present at the party, but it will also make the marriage a memorable super event. How many marriages do you know of that uses such innovative technique to personalize the wedding? The point is: do this and the bride and the groom will be taken over by the true joyful emotion at the sight of their guests indulging in the secret fantasy of bride and groom’s childhood.

The wedding planner

Creating this custom gift is fairly simple, and can be done with a very little effort. You should be extremely cautious while collecting information about the candies and cookies he or she as well as his or her would-be better half liked when they were kids as you would not like to disclose your plans beforehand.

Once you got the information you were seeking, the next step is to procure the cookies and candies in sufficient quantity. To get the idea about how many cookies and candies you are going to need, you have to find the following:

• The number of guests who will be present at the wedding.
• How many candies and cookies will you be giving to each guest?

After getting the numbers right, it is time to write the story behind the candies and cookies distribution. You should use calligraphy or handwriting font to write the story. Write the story using a flowery language, and keep the story short. The size of the note should not be more than 5 X 4 inches. You can also use decorative borders, if you wish to adorn the note.

You will need a page designing and lay out making software like Quark Express, or Adobe Indesign to design the note. You can also use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe illustrator, or Corel Draw for this purpose.

On the cover-side of the note, put one picture each of the bride and the groom clicked when they were kids or may be toddler. If you want to add a headline or a caption to the image, feel free to do that. You will need   Adobe Photoshop or Gimp (open source) to optimize the images for the note.

The wedding gift

How are you planning to distribute it? C’mon, don’t tell me that you just planning to hand the candies, cookies and note over to your guests! Kidding, right? Jokes apart, packaging and the delivery of the super gift is as important as the gift itself.

For packaging, you can use a small box made of pristine white or elegant black leather. On top-face of the box, get the name of the bride and the groom engraved along with the salutation for the receiver. Use thin, golden or silver font for the purpose. Put the candies and cookies in the box, keep the note on top of them, and hand the box over to every guest before the ritual starts.

Finding a box manufacturer will not be very difficult. Search the Internet for the companies that specialize in gift wrapping, or you can also contact companies that make small boxes for watches. Ask for their quotes, and go with the one who offers the most competitive price.