11-10-2021 Holiday Gift Guide - Flipbook - Page 14
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Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Make It Personal
Personalized Gifts Are One-of-A-Kind
By Lisa Baldino, Contributing Writer
I
f you’re looking for the perfect gift
for someone who has everything –
or someone who doesn’t – try some
personalized gifts that not only show you
care, but they also communicate that you
put a great deal of thought into the gift.
The internet is teeming with ideas for the
holidays. Personalization Mall projects bestselling monogram items like photo blankets,
cutting boards, mugs and ornaments. Etsy
has water bottles, engraved light-up wine
bottles and etched beer mugs. You’ll find
clothing emblazoned with names and clever
sayings – aprons, pajamas, robes and shirts.
Just about anything can be personalized,
turning an everyday item into a treasured
memory.
According to Kim Strassner, owner of
Words with Boards, a Baltimore-based
personalized wood-working company, if
you’re thinking of personalizing your gifts
this year, get moving. “Order early!” she
emphasizes. “We have a studio in Baltimore
that has product that can be personalized
and purchased, but if you are ordering online
and having it shipped, order early!”
Customers should also include time
for order processing, packing and delivery.
Don’t forget that shippers are traditionally
over-stretched during the holiday season.
The beauty of that fact, according to one
engraver, “If you forgot a gift for someone,
you can always use the excuse that it didn’t
get shipped in time and is due to arrive this
week! Then you rush home and choose a
personalized item that can arrive two-day
express.”
Here are a few tips for personalizing gifts
by working with different types of vendors
– DIY, independent artists, established
companies and online retailers.
Start with the interests or hobbies of the
gift recipient and decide how personal and
how useful you want the gift to be. You can
personalize something that he or she will use
every day, like golf balls for the golfer, or a
spatula for the griller. Or, you can drill down to
the other, less common items that
will enhance the person’s
experience
of
the
activity. For example,
Personalization Mall
offers a variety
of gifts for the
person
who
likes to cook.
Items
range
from
baking
dishes, aprons
and
wooden
spoons to flour
sack
towels,
cutting boards and
recipe cards. You’ll find
endless choices for the
wine lover, as well – wine bottles
with personal labels, wine glasses,
chillers, cheese boards, corks and more.
Online retailers are often interconnected, and
product variety is the name of the game, but
you are often limited to a few templates for
artwork and design layout.
Local artists can customize the gifts
exactly the way you want them. According
to Sandra Madigan, avid crafter from Bel
Air who has diversified her online selling
business to include personalized gifts, “It’s
a nice way of giving somebody something
that’s a little more special and it shows that
you’re thinking of them. It’s also a great way
to support artisans in this crazy economic
environment,” Madigan notes. “I find we are
in a less material world and people are more
attracted to usable sentimental items.”
Madigan says she has created
commemorative gifts for weddings such as
personalized drink buckets, or water
bottles for a girls’ weekend. “I
have recreated a shirt with
a logo for a childhood
golf club, helped bring
a slogan from an idea
to a wearable reality
and created many
picture-perfect
wedding parties
and baby’s first
birthday parties.
I love getting to
be part of making
someone’s
special
day extra special.”
While you may be able
to get a single customized
product from a larger vendor,
Madigan says it’s the mass market gifts
that are the big money-makers for large
companies. “Mine is more a labor of love,”
she notes.
Mid-sized companies can also offer some
unique products, and they often specialize
in a certain category, like metal working,
jewelry or woodworking. Hot sellers this
year for Baltimore-based Words with Boards
will definitely include the company’s popular
personalized cutting boards and lazy Susans,
says Strassner.
The Baltimore company specializes in
one-of-a-kind heirloom gifts that are created
in its wood shop and design studio located
in the Hampden neighborhood. New this
year is the Family Recipe gift board. The
item features your favorite family recipe laser
engraved on the wooden board. “People
are at home cooking more, and they want
to save their treasured recipes. This new
custom product can be in the cook’s actual
handwriting, or you can select the font of
your choice. If the recipe card is in good
condition, it can be scanned right onto the
wood,” Strassner explains.
Words with Boards also has something for
dog lovers: a dog leash board personalized
with the breed or name of the dog cut
out of the wood. It allows people to hang
leashes in a single spot. The state cutting
board is another popular product that can
be personalized by state name or family
name, or any other form of identification. “We
encourage customer creativity,” Strassner
notes. All work uses sustainable forested
wood, and Words with Boards plants one
tree in the United States for every board sold.
Visit www.wordswithboards.com
If you like to do the personalization
yourself, you can buy the basic items from
big box stores like Michael’s, JoAnn’s and
Hobby Lobby and use a wide variety of craft
supplies for customizing. Select your method
– from stickers to calligraphy pens and paint
to embroidery.
Let your creativity shine and show your
thoughtfulness with personalized gifts.
