Make a Personalized Gift

It is true that there are a lot of personalized gifts on the market. The trouble is, mass produced items only come in the most common names. They are not going to risk spending big money on production costs for 1000 mugs that say Bernadette or Barthalomew.

And ready made items will only come in a few colors or a few themes. If you know the recipient loves red roses and collects eggs, you may be hard-pressed to find one. Here is one I painted in the photo below.

I will talk about two ways to go about getting a personalilzed gift.

If you have even the most minimal of art skills and the time to do it, you can personalize your own gifts. It is well worth it to learn things like calligraphy, one stroke painting, or stenciling just so that you can make your own gifts.

Some rubber stamp companies will make a custom stamp for you. That can be pricey. You can expect to pay about $20.00 for an original stamp. But if you have a child with that name, and you plan to use it to personalize lots of things over the years, it's worth it.

You can also make cards and banners and signs on your home computer. There are many programs designed to do that with instructions and clip art. I use Paint Shop Pro a lot. Sometimes it's better to use Microsoft Publisher. Check your computer to see if you already have an art program on it. You will need a printer to print things out.

Kids are not self-concious about making personalized art. If you just cover a table with newspapers and lay out markers, paper, stamps, glitter and glue, they are pretty much off and running.

Adults are a lot more shy about digging in, fearing there first attempts will be scoffed at. And some people don't appreciate homemade gifts, so before you go too far, scratch their names off your list and get them a gift certificate or something.

Then you can focus on the people that will love your creations.

Raid your dollar store. They sell many things that you can jazz up with a paint pen or some glitter.

You can get glass paint to paint on mirrors, outdoor paint to paint on clay pots, etc. There really is no limit to the items you can personalize.

Find out exactly how to spell the person's name. Guessing can be embarassing. If they like role playing games or reinactments, you can personalize an item with their game name, or do it in Viking Runes or in Latin.

If you want to put a customized saying or the obscure name of your boss on a coffee mug; try sites like Cafe Press or Zazzle. Here's one of my Cafe Press stores so you can see what I mean. http://www.cafepress.com/bellydancers

You don't have to sell to the public. They have a feature where you can buy your own merchandise. It's great if you need 20 shirts for your baseball team or 100 for a family reunion.

Make sure your read how big the image should be for each product. Otherwise your mom will look very pixilated.

Be sure to order early so you get your personalized item in time for the big day. Allow enough time for a reorder in case something is not to your liking.

Some of the personalized things you can order include hats, lunchboxes, calendars, panties, clocks, flying discs, teddy bears, and books.