09 April 2017

Creative Guide to Gift Giving

Hello everyone! Sorry that it's been more than two weeks since I last posted but I'm back with something a little different. Today I wanted to share with you something that I enjoy doing every now and then, being creative with gift giving. There have been several friends that have had birthdays in the last two months so I have lots of ideas for you.
This first set of gifts has a bit of a theme. I tried to use lots of pastel colours and a few metallics so the gifts would tie in well together. I handmade some bookmarks that looked like some of my friend's favourite cartoon characters. One of my tips for gift giving is to make some gifts yourself. This means that you can really personalise the gifts and it's fun to see what you can create.

This next set of gifts doesn't really have a theme but there's a few fun gifts here. My next tip for gift giving is to ask a few questions to the person you're giving gifts to. A few weeks before their birthdays, I asked my friends a few things about what their favourite things are. Things like their: favourite sweets, favourite TV shows/programs, favourite accessories and things that they can't get enough of/collect. This helped to inspire me with possible themes or just the sort of gifts they might like. In the jewellery box in the photo, are some handmade earrings. This friend told me they liked Harry Potter and Stranger Things and their favourite accessories were earrings. So I made waffle stud earrings (apparently waffles are a Stranger Things reference) and golden snitch inspired dangly earrings (a Harry Potter reference).

Again, this next set of gifts doesn't have a theme but I used the questions about their favourite things to come up with these gifts. My next tip for gift giving is to try to give different types of presents. What I mean by this is you should try not to give just food or just jewellery or just stationery, etc but instead to give a mix of all of these things. The reason I say this is because everything lasts for different amount of times. Food lasts for a very short amount of time, depending on how tasty it is tee-hee. Stationery lasts for much longer but can eventually be used up. Then jewellery could last for a very long time. BY the way the handmade items here are: the notebook, the bookmarks and the earrings inside the jewellery box. 


 This final set of gifts does have a theme, jaffa cakes. It's a bit of an unusual theme but fun. That's why my last tip is to think outside of the box. Just think, who else is going to give these gifts? I don't think anyone else would (that could either be a good or bad thing, you decide hehe). I used two of the things that they said were their favourite things: jaffa cakes and bath bombs, to inspire me. This was actually quite difficult to put together because there weren't many jaffa cake items in the shops. So I actually bought chocolate orange items from the shops:chocolate orange bath bomb and chocolate orange lollipops. I made the notebook myself and the keyring was handmade too, but not by me. It was made by Heartfelty (see their facebook page here).

I hope that I've inspired you to get creative with your gift giving, it's such a fun thing to do for your friends and family! Just to recap, here's my four tips for creative giftgiving:

  1. Hand make some gifts-this can really personalise the gifts
  2. Ask the recipient a few questions about their favourite things-again this helps you to personalise their gifts
  3. Try to give a few different types of gifts-this means the recipient can enjoy their gifts in different ways for different amounts of time
  4. Think outside the box-this makes the gifts fun and unique
So that's all for today's post, remember you don't have to spend a lot of money to give gifts that your friends will enjoy, I just thought I'd share a few creative ideas to inspire you.

Over to you..
Have you given any gifts recently? Or have you been doing anything else creative? Let me know in the comments. Also, what has been your best gift you've ever received?

4 comments:

  1. I love this post, Megan! All of your four tips on gift-giving are very useful, but I especially like tip three. I also agree with you that including something handmade gives a personal touch to the gift.
    http://zainabsalmansiddiqui.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thank you Zainab, I'm so glad you found it useful. I've noticed that on your art blog, you've shown your own handmade gift ideas which I find really inspiring! :D

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  2. This is an awesome post Megan, it's given me so much inspiration for gift-giving!

    I love the Disney/Hello Kitty inspired bookmarks in the first one! They're all done so beautifully and the pink pastel theme is so cute. I totally agree with you on giving homemade gifts as well - shop-bought gifts are a tad overused these days haha. xD The pink box in the second set of gifts is so pretty! Did you make it? Asking questions to the recipient is a great strategy for inspiration. I love the Harry Potter and Stranger Things themed gift in the third set too! That's a really interesting theme, especially the waffle and golden snitch earrings. (The iconic Harry Potter reference in the bookmark there, platform nine and three-quarters, adds an awesome touch to the theme.) I feel you there about the food! xD The hand designed notebook looks so beautiful btw! Did you buy a new notebook or redesign one you already had? Wow, Jaffa cakes is such a fun, unique theme in the last one! (It makes for an interesting challenge and inspiring combo!) Chocolate orange is a great alternative too, since Jaffa cakes are actually supposed to be that aren't they? Omigosh and the notebook you made there is so lovely! It fits in with the theme perfectly. Mind if I ask where you got the background paper from? C: I always love Heartfelty's designs as well and this keyring is formidable (not to mention delicious haha)!

    The recap is really helpful too. I personally found the fourth tip intriguing, as you showed us in the last set, since it's something I haven't really considered before but has interesting results! I'm going to be making a gift pretty soon for one of my friends so I'll think about this post when I get round to putting it together. As for my favourite gift, I can't really say one because I have too many but one of my favourites would be the homemade biscuits in a handmade box from one of my friends; I loved it because I don't usually receive a shop-bought gift from my friends as you might be able to understand! xD Great post Megan, this was a really fun read! <3

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    1. Hi Kenza! Thanks, I'm happy to hear that you were inspired!

      Yes I made the jewellery boxes with the help of my crafty Auntie Beverley, she shows me how to craft something new every Summer when we go to visit her. I made these last Summer actually but I've been saving them for when I had jewellery to give to someone! That year I practised lots of origami. Yes, asking the recipient general things that they liked (rather than for a list) was effective but it was quite awkward asking questions. But funny too, since I joked that it was a'Birthday Survey' and kept asking them questions in turn for about half an hour. Hopefully it's payed off though and they weren't too annoyed at my questions haha! Do you watch Stranger Things by the way? I haven't but I was wondering if you have any opinions on it? For both notebooks, I bought a plain notebook from Home Bargains and decorated it completely. For the crystal one I used some marbled paper that I made in my school's art department. Yes jaffa cakes are chocolate orange but with cake-iness so I was hoping to find something with a picture of jaffa cake or a jaffa cake product like a mega jaffa cake, but unfortunately not. But I agree, I think chocolate orange is close enough. Thank you so much! The background paper was a gift wrap from a shop in Salts Mill in Shipley, Yorkshire. I know that's specific haha but you may find it in other gift shops. For example, I found a pineapple wrapping paper once in two different shops so I guess you'll find the biscuit one somewhere else. But Salts Mill is a great place to go on a day out by the way! So many beautiful art supplies and an art gallery of David Hockney. Ooh formidable-what a wonderful word! Hehe I'll remember that one for my upcoming English speaking assessment.

      I'd love to know what you make for your friend-do you think you'll post it on Instagram or your blog? Handmade biscuits sound lovely, I love baking but I've never really thought to bake something as a gift. Maybe I'll do that for another friend's birthday? Actually I made chocolate truffles once-that was really fun! Thank you Kenza! :D <3

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