Made with Love, Part 1

This is here by the 3 votes it received. I’m not sure what you guys thought it would be... but I thought it was high time I did a post on….CREATIVITY!

I have yet to put anything on my blog related to my artistic side and for someone who has constant projects in the works it really is quite a shame.

So…one of my favorite things in the world is to come up with a creative gift to give someone. Perhaps it is my thrifty nature that loves to make things from nothing and create something beautiful or my love language that speaks so loudly of being gift giving. But for whatever reason I love to creative and give meaningful gifts.

For many people this may seem like a daunting task, project or undertaking but I wanted to share with you how simple it really can be!

Step 1: Who is the gift for? Keeley (I needed someone for an example and she just happened to be the first person that popped into my head.)

Step 2: What kind of things does Keeley like? (BRAINSTORM!)

-healthy eating/organic food

-her kids

-snowboarding

-good deals

-fairy wings

-spending time with people

-cooking!

-gardening

-reading books

-sytycd

-her family

Step 3: What is my budget for this gift? This for me depends on a lot of factors…what the gift is for (birthday, christmas), who the gift is for, and largely how much extra cash I have to spend. For this example my gift budget is: $10

Step 4: Brainstrom again. Think of ideas in each of these categories.

My thought process goes a bit like this.

-eating healthy/organic food- coupon to whole foods// cookbook

-her kids-make a photo book of her kids// do a photo shoot with the kids and enlarge some photos and frame them

-snowboarding- make her a coupon book that includes a coupon redeemable to watch her kids while she goes snowboarding// plan a day out when you take her snowboarding (this would be above the budget unless we both had season passes, but if something like that was in place…taking someone somehwere special makes a great gift)

-good deals…take her thrift store/garage sale shopping// make a coupon book that includes a coupon to watch her kids while she goes shopping,

-fairy wings- make a special book about her that includes the things about her that I love// make a framed collage about her// make a framed page with fairys and write a poem about her

-spending time with people- plan a super special day that would include her hanging out with some of her closest friends// have a party for her

-cooking-buy a new cookbook or cooking magazine// buy a special kitchen item she has been eyeing for a while// make her something for the kitchen: container to hold something, plaque that says something like “Keeley’s Kitchen”, an apron, etc…

-gardening- make a garden kit with little things to use in the garden (spade, seeds, plant markers, etc…)// buy her a book about gardening// include in the coupon book a coupon good for 1 hour of garden work (by me) or a coupon for taking care of her garden if she goes away

-reading books- get her some great thrift store books// buy her a new book// make her some book marks// buy her a gift certificate to a book store// take her shopping and let her pick out a book she’s wanted for a while

-sytycd- buy a season for her on dvd// buy tickets to see the show (both of these are out of price range so this would get crossed off the list)

-her family- something special where her family writes notes to her and compile a book of them, etc…

So as you can see your dilemma is now not what to get because you have NO ideas, but it’s what to do/get because you have TOO MANY ideas. A much better dilemma!

You can also brainstorm based on giving event: Annversary, wedding, baby’s birth, gradtuation, etc…

Of all the choices I came up with the gift I would get her/give her is:

---A coupon book good for watching her kids that included the activities that I know she likes (snowboarding, bargain hunting, gardening, etc…)

---And I would also do surprise photo shoot with her kids (while I’m watching them you see) and have them help me decorate frames (that would cost me $1 or less) and enlarge the photos which I would search around for places that were having a sale or discounting the enlargements.

Ta-da! This is HOW I Make my gifts with love.

Part 2 is coming tomorrow: Tips for Making with LOVE

Part 3 on Thursday: Ideas for anniversaries, weddings, babies and graduations

Part 4 this weekend: Things I have made with love- (photos and works in progress)--from the simple to the complex.