Each one of us spends most of our waking hours in our work places. This is the reality of the modern life, which we cannot change, but we can do a small adjustment, and make the stay in the office more pleasurable.

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.

The idea behind a complete honeymoon kit

The super gift idea I am going to discuss here may prove to be the best wedding gift your friend has received on his/her weeding. This gift will come as a blessing to a newlywed couple who is going for their honeymoon. I am asking you to make a honeymoon kit for your friend that will have every essential thing, which the couple will need during the honeymoon. I am not asking you to gift them a wardrobe or something, you can if you want to, but this is not the idea. The idea is to give them those little things that are absolute must, but which people often forget to carry when going for any vacation.

The nuts and bolts of the honeymoon kit

Take a small handbag or a small briefcase, and decorate it to make it look like a honeymoon kit that will keep the things you are going too gift in the kit. The size of the handbag or the hard-cover briefcase should be big enough to comfortably accommodate the things you are going to include in the honeymoon kit. You can also write a personalized message and sign it with your initials, on the inside of the briefcase cover.

The next step is to make a checklist of things you would take if you were going for a honeymoon. Strike out the items that your friend may not need. The things that will go into the honeymoon kit will largely depend on your friend and his or her partner’s preferences. Having said that, I must provide you with a list of essential items that any couple will need during their honeymoon, regardless of where they are going. The honeymoon kit should include the following items:

1.       Waist pouch

2.       Knapsack

3.       Name Tags

4.       Luggage Tags

5.       Do knot (not) disturb door hangers

6.       Scented Candles

7.       Some scented soap sheets

8.       Perfume for both of them

9.       Male and female contraceptives

10.   A handbook about what to do on honeymoon and what to expect

11.   Blank Diary to pen down thoughts and experiences

12.   Postcards

13.   Some good music

14.   Memory card readers to transfer music

15.   Blank Media (DVDs or CDs) to save pictures and video clips.

16.   Over the counter medicines for common cold, headaches, light fever, eye drop, dysentery etc.

17.   Two straw hats

18.   Chocolates

19.   Some props , and

20.   A bottle of good wine

As the list suggest, you can purchase almost everything from the market. When you are going to shop for “the handbook about what to do on honeymoon and what to expect” you should be careful because this handbook will work as a guide for the couple, and if they like it, they might take a leaf or two out of the book and do the thing suggested in the handbook.

Make him the lord of the ring or her the lady of the ring

Though this gift idea is unisex, it requires two different styles of rings for each of the sexes. Using just one type of ring, a circular ring with engraving on it is also permissible for both the sexes, but I have assumed in writing this gift idea that you will choose different rings for different sexes.

The idea is to gift a ring on the valentine day with a personalized message engraved on it. You can also gift this gift on your marriage anniversary.

The resources you need

Despite all its attractiveness, and all its emotion quotient, this super gift is not going to make you sweat. This is one of the easiest gifts to create. To create this custom ring, all you need is a little bit of creativity, an ability to search the Internet, a romantic heart, and a strong desire to make him or her feel special. If you wish, and you have a knack for jewelry designing, or you know someone who can do this work for you then you can even consider getting the ring designed.

The Ring in the making

To create this custom gift, you need to begin with conducting an online research for the company that specializes in creating rings with the personalized message. Alternatively, you can also get the ring designed, as stated above. Visit a local jeweler to get the ring crafted. Even if you are planning to get a ring created for your beloved, I will suggest you to conduct a research on the Internet to know the design options you have. It is better to search the Internet for the designs of the ring before requesting a friend or a professional to design a ring for you then to wait until the person churns out a ring from his or her imagination. The later approach will be more time consuming.

I will suggest you to search the Internet and make a list consisting of 5-10 ring designs, and then approach the jewelry designer to get one of them designed. Sometime during the process, you also need to visit the jeweler and see if they have enough talent to craft the ring with the required delicacy. The jewelry designer as well as the jeweler will ask about the material you want to use for the ring. Depending upon your taste, budget and the design’s requirement, you can go for either silver, gold, white gold, platinum or mixture of any two metals. A stainless steel ring also looks classy, so this option should also not be ruled out.

The process of finalizing the design, getting the blueprint from the designer, and getting the final output from the jeweler will take some time. If you are in hurry, you can search for the company that can engrave a personalized message you want on the ring using laser gun. As said above, there are many online companies that can help you in getting this done. These companies do have a good range of different kinds of ring ideal for either of the sexes.

At any convenient time before the ring goes to the jeweler or to the online company of your choice for crafting, you need to write a personalized message that will get engraved on the ring. Keeping in mind the longevity of a ring, I will suggest you to write a message that is timeless. I will suggest against writing something like “Happy Valentine Day 2009″ or “Happy 21^st Marriage Anniversary”. Instead, write something like “I think of you when someone says Love” or “For me love means you”.

One word of caution: Seeing the limitation of the medium, limit the number of words in the personalized message to five, and ask the jeweler to fill the engraved message with a contrast color. For example: if you are using stainless steel, silver, platinum or white gold then the text engraved should be of pitch-black color, and if you are going for gold then use cherry-red to paint the engraved message. Do not hesitate to experiment, but do a test run of the color combination on a sheet of paper or on a computer before finalizing the color combination.

In many cases, you do not need to go to a jewelry designer to get your ring designed, instead what you can do is search a ring design from the Internet, and go directly to the jeweler to get your ring made.

Do the Unexpected

Childhood is the best part of any man’s life. We realize this when we are way out of our childhoods. No gift can be better for an elderly couple than giving him and her opportunity to relive their childhood. The super event I am asking you to plan will present your parents with this kind of opportunity. I am asking you to call all the childhood friends of your mother and father, and arrange a party for them.

Making your parents relive their childhood is the central idea behind the super gift we are going to discuss here.

Preparation for the big night

This will be a surprise party, and by that I mean, your parents should not be aware of the people on the guest list. You can safely tell them about the party you are arranging for them. There are two benefits of this action: one, your parents will not make any other plan, and two, your parents will get ready for the big occasion.

Party planning

Start with making a guest list. This guest list is going to be unlike any other guest list that you ever had for any other party. Only those people who have a relation with your parents’ childhood should be included in this guest list. The idea is to invite as many childhood friends of your parents as you can, and make them relive their childhood. They will always be thankful for this sweet gift, and will always remember this night. The possibility is high that they even rejoin ties with many of the invitees with whom your parents’ ties got snapped due to various reasons.

To prepare one such list, you will need to take leads from your parents. Ask them, and even ask their siblings, their neighbors, or you may sneak through their address book to get information about their friends. Once you have the contact list, start dialing each number, and ask them to join this party. Make clear who all are inviting, and how this could be a memorable event for every participant. Do not forget to request each of them not to tell your parents about your plan.

Walk that extra mile, but make sure, your parents’ friend agrees to attend to the party. Arrange for their commutation, if you can. Seeing their age, you should make all the preparation to make their journey less exerting, and tell them how far you are planning to go to bring them to the super event.

The next step is to create the ambience. The first step in that direction is to talk to your parents’ close friends, and ask them about the kind of environments they used to create in their parties, also ask for your parents’ favorite activities; kind of games, or fun activities they were doing as kids. Mimic them. You can also ask your parents about these things indirectly without disclosing your intention.

Once the plan for the ambience is in place, it’s time to think about food. You should remember that given the age, the guests might have some health-related issues, prepare food accordingly. Ask your parents or their friends about their favorite candies, cookies, or biscuits; include them in the menu as well. The cake should be the one they drooled over when they were kids. If they liked two different cakes then get two different cakes for the occasion. Music should also be from the same era. The party, in its entirety, should be a time machine that will take all the guests back in time to their childhoods.

Time to execute

Once every planning is done, starting making arrangements, stealthily. Get video recorders installed at various places to record this memorable party as well. I am asking you to install video recorders and not to use it because I want to suggest that no one other than their childhood friends should be present in the party, not even you. You should also leave the room once the cake is cut, and your share of cake is given to you. Get out of the venue and let them enjoy!

Pack up time

Once the party is over, collect the video footages from the recorders. Make a good disc from the footage with a good jacket, and dispatch it to everyone on the guest list with a thank you for participate note. This will love it!

Word of Caution: You need to make a balance. The people and the things you arrange for the party, from friends to music to food to ambience to candies, should reflect the childhood memory of both your parents. None of the two should feel that something is missing from their past.