Making gifting more special this holiday season

It is time of the year again that we more get to celebrate love, family, friendship – and this life, in general. True though, that the year  2020 marked itself in history as a hard year for mankind. However, getting to reach this time and age, alive and surviving through it all is already a blessing.

Having this realization, I think it is high time for us to show appreciation to our loved ones more than ever and one of best ways is gifting our gratefulness.

Why not elevate your gifting through applying DIYs from your packaging to content? To give you an idea, below are two of the gifts I made last year for my friends, Vian and Vida. I just hoped I did not make them cry. LOL.

I took pride of using leaf from a magazine to be my wrapper and also tapes and plastic straw to hold the gift together.

I wrapped the gift just like candies because I find it cute.

I also used some of my kept stationeries as gift cards.

Let’s talk about the content. I made it sure that what I give them is of course they will surely use it and help them in their tasks. I was also happy that I spend no cent in this gift-giving. I just selected all those that I haven’t able to use and are new, and also significant. Mostly are items that I gotten from events that I attended during the year.

That time I made this, I know Vianney is set to travel for Japan. Hence, I gave her this mini, pocket-sized scrapbook for her to fill in some photos. I also included notes! I somehow manage to use my printer and vintage-inspired notepads to make it chic.

I included an organizer for passport, boarding pass and plane tickets that she can use.

Then, planner for her tasks organization and I put marker to July 13 to remind her of my birthday! Hahaha.

She happen to like milktea that time, so I gifted her metal straws. This one I got from Cebu Pacific event. Hehe. See, I didn’t actually spend on these gifts. These are my unused, kept and treasured things.

I simply printed the letter cards. There are a lot of templates available online. I designed it with stickers which were inclusions of 2019 planners that I purchased. Yes, guys, I kinda have this obsession of planners and stickers since forever!

Finally, I managed to put it in this pink fragranced card envelope.

For Vida, I gave her my CBTL 2020 Giving Journal since The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf 2020 Giving Journal’s theme last year is about Gifting Gratefulness, and it’s all about giving. Besides, I already purchased a planner before I received this package from CBTL. (Thank you so much for this, Coffee Bean fam!)

Vida is a little bit of a workaholic teacher, by the way. Hehe.

and also Beauty Nerd, at the same time.

Finally, the letter. I made it another copy of Vian’s.

The finish product!

Hence, there! I hope I gave you an idea or two how to fix your gifts for loved ones and friends this holiday season. 2020 might be hard but we can end it by being able to express our appreciation to our loved ones because they are there for us in all seasons of our lives. Remember, gift-giving is just one of those. We can also treat them to a mini-vacation, “us” time, dinner, or maybe with catching up over coffee, or simply by just saying “Thank you for sticking with me this 2020.” Moments as these – it’s more than enough to make 2020 a little bit lighter and warmer for people who means so much to us. Advance Happy Holidays!