Our father gave us the most wonderful gift anyone could have given to us. A gift of life, and yet he is the one guy who is least loved or cared for, may be because he has not been very expressive. On this father’s day, give him the gift of love and gratitude.

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.

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.