My best gifts are usually made.
I combined photos with a backdrop that I drew and added a simple funny rhyme that describes us perfectly for our 20th anniversary. ( I knew when he busted out laughing that it was a hit) He took it to work to put on his wall. His co-workers all loved it.
Another gift was a collage of our events in our life. He loved that as well.
For my son’s birthday, ( I think it was his 25th) I made a dvd of pictures and videos of his life from a day old, grade school, high school and college up until he graduated from boot camp. It took me over a year to select the photos and make it work with my song selection so that the words fell perfectly with the pictures an the video at the end. Especially since most of my photos were not digital of his younger years and I had a crappy scanner at the time. I would take about 5 minutes to scan each photo. And my computer was slow as dirt. I think I could’ve hand drawn those pictures faster.
For my daughter. I made her bridal bouquet and designed it with her in mind. She was so happy and proud of it. (But I still want to do something for her to keep longer than flowers) I’m just kind of running out of ideas. :(
What made them such great gifts was that I took my time in letting them know how much they mean to me.
I’ve always loved gifts that were made for me more than purchased.