The Gift of Gifting

I’m a newly graduated (yay!!) college student whose deepest passions involve all things art.

From more classical applications (drawing, painting, sculpting), to more modern, creative forms of art (scrapbooking, bullet journaling, food art, theatrical makeup) - you name it, if it has anything to do with art or creativity, I’m interested in it!

As an artist, I love making things with my hands, and simply creating.

Being a maker is a wonderful thing, letting you create and leave beauty in your wake. And while I believe that making all the art your soul desires is something to encourage in all people, regardless of familiarity with material and methods or skill level, I think there are also other meaningful avenues of applying one’s artistic talent that often go overlooked.

We never know the burdens someone may be carrying upon their shoulders, and in a world that can be difficult, using our ability to create by making something beautiful to brighten someone’s day can make it even just a tiniest bit more beautiful of a place to be. And of course, the effects of small acts of kindness can have huge ripples.

My favorite - and most fulfilling - creative hobby is that of crafting personalized, handmade gifts. I love making thoughtful gifts for loved ones that allow me to add personal touches that express how deeply I love and appreciate them. I make all my presents with the goal of making their recipients know how special and valued they are, and I hope to encourage others to likewise express their love for the special people in their life.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and I think the same can be said for a personalized, custom handmade gift being worth a thousand “generic” store-bought gifts. The love and care that goes into their creation, and the ability to completely customize and tailor it to perfection for the recipient, is something that elevates the gift-giving game to an entirely new level. A handmade gift is more intimate and personalized than buying a “standard,” less personalized item like a wallet, a tie, a fountain pen, a necklace, or clothes. It is a sacrifice of time as well as a trial in patience, and that in itself is part of its expression of love.

Like many other creatives, a piece of me goes into every creation I make, and these handmade presents are no exception. When I make them, they carry a part of me, which makes gifting them even more meaningful to give to someone special. I take pride in knowing that I’ve created something that hopefully conveys how deeply I care and appreciate them, more than words or a genetic store-bought item might.

Additionally, I have found this to be an extremely rewarding practice that spreads joy amongst all parties involved!

Making and giving personalized gifts is not only a heartwarming and touching gesture for the recipient, but also a beautiful experience for the maker themselves. I have learned to better understand and appreciate the people for whom I make these presents, and realize the depth and value I have for our relationships. I can reflect on the things I love and appreciate about the recipient as an individual, and meditate on the journey and good memories of our relationship.

Some Past and Current Projects

Some of my best works have been gifts I made over the past couple years for my boyfriend. My inspiration largely stems in equal parts from Pinterest crafts and my love of paper crafts, such as scrapbooking and collaging.

I have loved paper crafting since middle school, when I first began scrapbooking. As a deeply sentimental creature, I was completely taken by the way it allowed me to combine both artistry and precious memories together into a beautiful display and keepsake. I fell in love with different paper patterns and pretty tapes and stickers that would allow me to elevate each page to a greater degree, and the satisfaction of crisply cutting out a person or shape for decorative overlapping.

This love soon blossomed into an interest for collaging as well. Juxtaposing different textures, shapes, colors, and objects fascinated me. I enjoyed scouring through old magazines, photo albums, and pictures I could print from my home computer, before carefully cutting out the objects as precisely and cleanly as I could. Half of the fun was in the challenge of that, especially when facing a particularly intricate item (for example: a water or paint splash, or a model with hair fanning out in the wind)! Afterwards, deciding on which cutouts to use and what their placement would be was like solving a jigsaw puzzle; finding where each piece fit and belonged was another favorite challenge.

I have carried this passion forward with me into my gift making, and it is very seldom that I create a gift that does not involve some sort of picture scrapbooking or collaging with it.

Here, I’ll touch on a few of my favorite personalized gifts I have made for my boyfriend that will hopefully inspire you, if you would like to do something similar for a special person in your own life!

I am of the strong belief that anyone is capable of “making;” one need not be an artist to make a personalized gift for someone they love. Many of these projects I’ll discuss do not require artistic talent at all; they simply require time, effort - and most importantly, love! - to complete!

Giant Number One

For our one-year anniversary, I decorated a giant wooden number one with black-and-white photos of our best memories from our first year together as a gift for my boyfriend.

I first painted the wood black so that any potential gaps between the pictures would not be noticeable, and so that the edges along the sides would look more refined. (I ended up going back and layering photos all along the face of the number so that no gaps between the photos would show, because I thought it looked better that way).

The process of choosing which pictures, and what size to print them out as, required many trials to get right. After gathering the final contestants, I painstakingly cut out each photo and planned out how I would arrange and overlap them in the collage.

Based on the available space and determining how to lay out the photos for the best use of it, I decided on the best arrangement before gluing and varnishing it all together.

I finished it by writing a message on the back of the wooden number and sealed that up, too.

Making this project took me down memory lane – I sorted through many pictures of us, and in doing so, was able to smile as I remembered the great times that every picture had captured a moment of. It gave me a further appreciation of our relationship and the journey we’ve embarked upon together, and rekindled the feelings of excitement and happiness I had experienced in each preserved memory.

365 Jar

The most recent project I completed for him was for this past Valentine’s Day.

I made him a 365 Jar, which has 365 curled strips of paper inside and works in a simple way: every day for a year, he can pick one roll of paper from one of five color categories (Pink: Reasons Why You’re Special To Me, Yellow: Remember When…, Green: Quotes And Song Lyrics, Orange: Mixtape- Songs That Make Me Think Of You, Blue: Random Fun Facts) and start his day off with a fun little message!

I decorated a big jar with glass paint, and after that dried, went back in with silver puffy paint to make extra designs. I tried to keep everything as symmetric as possible for this particular design, and was very pleased with the final result!

Planning each message and category took a while – I double-checked my final selection to make sure I had no repeats, and tried to get the highest quality material I could for the things I wrote. Writing inside jokes and references to fun times and good memories was an experience for me as well – it allowed me to reflect on all the wonderful things in our relationship, and how important it, and my boyfriend, is to me.

To make the paper strips, I cut brightly colored paper and penned a different message on each one. I then rolled each strip into a tight roll, which when put in the jar, would unwind just slightly enough to look like perfectly curled spirals.

Pop-Up Box

Currently, I’m working on two projects for him – for our recent graduation, a pop-up box, and a series of “Open When” letters (I’ll talk about that later!).

A pop-up box is a bunch of segmented paper sheets in the shape of a “+” layered on top on one another. When folded up and with a paper box top placed on top of them, makes a paper box. Upon taking off this box top, the box “explodes” into multiple pages of pictures and other fun surprises, often with a small item placed in the center space of the box.

These “boxes” can be made at home or bought online (I bought mine on eBay to save the time making it, but I’ve seen beautiful DIY ones!!)

The pop-up box I’m making him is full of pictures of our last four years together in college. This is a super fun project for someone who loves scrapbooking and collaging! I’m using a lot of mixed media in this, such as washi tape, stickers, markers, paints, and other paper goods.

So far, I have begun collaging pictures and tentatively arranging different cutouts and stickers over and around them. I have much more left to do, but the peace of cutting out pictures and arranging them makes it an almost therapeutic activity for me to do!

Like the wooden number one, choosing which pictures and their sizes took a few tries and planning to get right. But also like that project, the effort has provided me with the opportunity to sit back and reflect on the past four years of memories together. Finding old pictures let me remember great times I had almost forgotten about, and let me see and appreciate a whole timeline of pictures and the memories they carry from our journey through college together.

“Open When” Letters

Another project I’m working on for him is a series of “Open When” letters, for when he begins his new full-time job at the end of the summer.

“Open When” letters are great for long-distance couples or friends, because they’re a gift that allows you to be there for the person when you can’t be there in person. They remind and affirm the recipient of their importance and value to you, and encourages them when they’re feeling down. This is a project that does not require artistic skill as much as it requires some creative thinking and effort to assemble them!

Each letter requires the recipient to open them when they feel a certain way or something has happened.

For example, a letter stating, “Open When You’re Hungry,” would be opened when the recipient is – you guessed it! - feeling hungry. Inside, there can be fun quotes and a gift card to get some food, as well as some packaged food with a long shelf life.

A letter saying, “Open When You’re Sad,” could contain quotes of comfort, a letter of love and encouragement, funny jokes, and pictures of good times you’ve had together.

There’s a lot of freedom in choosing what occasions the letters should be opened for, and what to include inside of them!

So far, my progress has been limited since I’ve been focusing on the pop-up box. I have begun decorating the envelopes and interior letters with cutouts of us from various pictures we’ve taken together, as well as gathering other fun items to put inside each envelope.

One letter, “Open When You Can’t Sleep,” is currently stuffed with cut out paper stars and clipart sheep (you know, to count jumping over the fence) as well as some teeny origami stars I’ve folded up from long, thin strips of paper. Another letter, “Open When You Miss Me,” is full of cut out kisses planted on paper with lipstick, and some of our cutest pictures together. “Open When You’re Bored” has copies of some interesting articles to read, as well as multiple sheets of crossword puzzles, word hunts, and coloring pages that I made based on some of our inside jokes and other topics he enjoys.

Other Easy Projects

If the aforementioned projects seem too involved for you to give a try, don’t despair! There are plenty of other quick, easy options to do! Here are a couple other ideas:

Giant Valentine’s Day Candy Card

A couple of years ago, I made a giant Valentine’s Day “card” full of candy bars for my boyfriend. I glued wrapped candy bars on to a poster board amongst a written message I wrote out in black ink and incorporated the candy bar names into each line.

So, for example, one line I had written in my card to him - complete with its candy bars (a SNICKERS bar, a box of NERDS, a pack of EXTRA gum, and a roll of SMARTIES candies) - read:

“I hope you don’t SNICKER at how NERDy this is - I know it’s kind of EXTRA, but hey, I thought it was pretty SMART!”

To make the usage of the candy bar logos flow better in the context of the message, I used my marker to black out the extra letters that didn’t quite fit, or used it to add in additional letters to the end of a word – for example, I crossed out the “S” at the end of SNICKERS and the “IES” at the end of SMARTIES, and wrote a “Y” over the “S” on the box of NERDS candy.

This is a fairly quick project to do – if you want to do it the same way I did it, all you need to do is 1. buy a sturdy posterboard and as many candy bars are you want to include 2. write out a message, incorporating the candy bar names into it (just draft it out first, to make sure it fits!).

But!

If the candy bars are too bulky, or the poster board is not strong enough to support their weight, no sweat! Just print out colored copies of their labels on a regular sheet of printer paper, cut each one out, and then glue them into the appropriate location! You can just have the actual candy bars in a basket or bag to hand over with the card.

If I had to do it over again, I would do it in this more convenient manner to save space and preserve the card – after all, once those candy bars get pulled off to be eaten (which, of course, is their purpose!) the message you wrote starts losing its words, which can make it hard to read (or simply understand!) again later on.

Care Package

This is such a simple, easy, and fun way to show your appreciation for someone! The best part is that you can give this to someone in person or mail it to them if they’re far away.

All you really need to do is fill a box with snacks, goodies, and words of encouragement to make a care package- it’s up to you how intricate you make it beyond that!

I have made many different care packages for my boyfriend during times when he would have a lot of work or tough exams to study for. These were especially helpful for the times he was working so hard that he wouldn’t take a meal break.

If I were pressed for time, I would simply stuff a small plain box with snacks, messages on sticky notes, and a couple cut out quotes and memes I had printed out.

Other times, I would make the care packages more elaborate.

For one of our anniversaries, as the over-the-top person that I am, I decorated a box to be half blue and half orange, and divided it down the middle with snacks that had orange and blue packaging.

I started by covering the outside of the box in orange paper and the inside in blue. To get a fit that lay flush with the box’s edges, I would glue down an initial sheet of paper, and then cut out more paper strips that could reach far enough to cover the areas left bare.

After the box was appropriately papered, I started filling it with all the yummy goodies I had bought, concentrating all the blues on one side and oranges on the other with the middle being designated to those that shared both colors.

As a finishing touch, on the outside of the box, I wrote, “ORANGE You Glad…” and continued the message inside the box: “… That This Turned Up Out of The BLUE… To Remind You How Much I Love You?”

Final Thoughts

Sometimes, the time and painstaking effort it takes to perfect the gifts (and as a perfectionist, I never want to settle for doing less than my best work for the people I love!) might make it appear to be a “thankless” effort, especially since sometimes it may be hard for someone to realize the depth and extent of the work that went into something and they might not appreciate it “enough” to justify all the effort it took. But the thing is, I know how much time and work I put into it. I can take pride in knowing that I’ve used my artistic talents to make something not only beautiful, but meaningful and deeply personal for someone who I care just as deeply for. I can feel proud presenting it to them, and know that any happiness that it gave them is worth it to me.

Some day, we will be gone, but our work will transcend us. I know that even if my creations fail to stand the test of time or do not outlive me, the knowledge that I made someone who I loved feel special and know how loved they were is reward to me enough. A display of love and generosity like that is enough, and in that, making the world a happier, kinder place in turn.