The gift of gifting

It’s the father’s day – birthday lead up into Christmas for my family which means one thing… gifts.

*If you’re family, reading this, and you get any of these gifts, do me a favour and act surprised. Okay?*

The one thing I always try to keep in mind when buying or making gifts for the people I love is the one question you all should ask yourselves when procuring gifts. ‘Would I like to receive this?’ If the answer is no, you’re either not thinking hard enough, or would rather not be buying a gift for this person… in that case, gift vouchers are the way to go.

ANYWAY!

The easiest place to start is to think of the things the person/ people like.

Couples quite often have a common favourite movie. The gifts I am really wishing someone would buy my hubby and I, are matching Princess Bride t-shirts. One says “Get Back Witch!”, while the other says “I’m Not a Witch, I’m your Wife!” See? Classic.

For the wordy types you can’t go past a great blank journal and a pen. Café Press is brilliant for most print based products.

For the coffee or tea addict (there’s more than one in every family) You could try Zazzle. This link happens to take you to a familiar design. *wink*

If you’re not into online purchasing and have a teeny budget (like me), you can look to $2 shops and craft stores to create some fabulous personalized gifts. I have 2 tutorials on making nice hair combs that are really budget friendly and easy to make on Marianne’s YouTube channel.

Another idea is also taking a simple hessian or calico bag, decorating it with things that speak volumes about the person you’re making it for.

For a book worm, you could use an iron on transfer and a printer to put the cover of their favourite book on the side of the bag. Or for angst filled cousins you could try to find punk themed badges and use different coloured sharpies to graffiti over the fabric.

If you do happen to go the gift voucher route, you can try jazzing up the gift giving process by making a groovy card. I hope to make more card tutorials in the future.

However you want to cut it, gift giving doesn’t have to be a pain in the butt, you just need to plan ahead a little.

My fail safe gift, no matter what, if I am truly stuck, is a calendar. 2013 calendars are starting to trickle in already. For a nice touch try personalizing it at your local photo printing kiosk.

Instead of pulling your hair out, keep in mind… Today is a gift, enjoy it!