When it comes to giving a personal gift, you have many options depending on your relationship with the recipient and your knowledge of his or her personal tastes, wants, and needs. Husbands and wives buy each other jewelry, vacation packages, and even more intimate gifts; parents get their children clothing and toys; siblings and long-time friends trade gag gifts that they know will get a laugh thanks to some inside joke from their childhood or school days. But if you’re looking to give a truly personal and one-of-a-kind gift, you can’t go wrong with photos. And rather than offering up the traditional framed photo, you might want to try something a little more creative, albeit without a lot of added expense. So here are just a few ideas to help you out.
Picking the perfect photo can be difficult. Suppose, for example, that you’ve only known the recipient for a short while. You may not have very many photos to choose from. And if the date of your intended gift-giving is fast approaching, you probably won’t have a lot of opportunity to snap the pics that will give you more variety to choose from. Ideally you want to use a sample from your own collection, but if all else fails you can always grab a favorite photo from their online collection (via social networking, of course). Or you can grab some candid pics on your smartphone. But how can you turn your image into a creative gift? If you’re working with a single photo, consider that you might have your image affixed to a mug or a pillow, or turned into a paperweight or a holiday ornament. By looking online you can find all kinds of ways to personalize everyday items with your photos.
Of course, if you know a person well and you’ve been in a relationship for a long time, you may have countless options that are equally appealing. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to create a collection of photos. An album is fairly easy, for example, but if you want to make it a lot more special you should consider assembling a scrapbook of some sort. The wonderful thing about this option is that the sky is the limit when it comes to creativity, and you can definitely work with a budget, as well. You can add your own keepsakes and use various forms of paper (from tissue to cardboard) as backgrounds. Or you can head to the craft store for a wide variety of scrapbooking supplies, including printed pages, cut-out graphics, stickers, and more.
You might also consider assembling a collage on a quilt or a messenger bag, just for example, as a way to create a long-lasting memento and a practical item all in one. And there are a wide variety of options to consider thanks to the popularity of digital images these days. If you’re handy with computer programs you could make a slide show or a video montage of photos for your recipient’s desktop background or screen saver. Or you could find an online service that helps you create a professional looking photo book (which is printed out and sent to you). There are tons of ways you can turn photos into fun, creative, personal gifts, and the price point all depends on the work you’re willing to do and the amount of ingenuity you show.