15 Gifts with a Personal Touch: Custom Creations for Your Loved Ones

Gifts are curious things. One person’s perfect present would be the worst choice for someone else, and something costing only a few dollars can end up being worth far more than another gift that costs $1000. Given that there’s such a huge variability in what people like, trying to find the ideal choice for someone important to you can be a big challenge. 

Thankfully, there’s always one surefire way to be a big hit – make your gift personal. In this article, you’ll discover 15 great ideas for the perfect customized gift, no matter who your special person is. 

1. Customized Name Necklace

Necklaces are always a fantastic choice: you can purchase them in a selection of different metals and a huge variety of shapes and styles (and there are also options to suit every budget). You may also choose to add a gemstone to the necklace as the central element, of which again, there are many different choices available to you. 

One of the most effective options, however, is to order a customized name necklace – a  truly bespoke gift that’s perfect for birthdays, anniversaries, and more. If you’re stuck for a choice, this is a great first port of call!

2. Engraved Watches

A watch is a fantastic gift to give and is the ideal choice for milestone birthdays, graduations, and retirements. Finding the perfect watch is something that will (and should) take you a long time, and once you’ve found it, adding an engraving can mark the ultimate final touch. 

You can choose to engrave the watch with whatever you like – you could decide on something simple like initials, or perhaps a quote that’s tailored specifically to the person (or the gift-giving occasion). Many people also engrave a personalized, enduring message that has special meaning and sentimentality. The choice is yours, so pick wisely.

3. Personalized Photo Book

Given how the vast majority of people use a smartphone to capture photos these days, photo books and albums have somewhat gone by the wayside; great pictures remain indefinitely in the digital realm where no one gets a chance to look at them. 

You could remedy that by giving the gift of a personalized photo book. You can design your ideal book with ease online – perfect for looking back on a life well lived with your loved one. 

4. Custom Star Maps

Custom star maps are a relatively new type of product to hit the market, and they’ve become very popular for their simple effectiveness. 

A custom star map depicts an arrangement of stars and constellations visible at a specific point in time at an exact location. For example, you might choose the spot, date, and time of the first time you met a significant other, and the framed image would showcase a relevant illustration of the night sky with this key information below. 

You’re sure to have the recipient shed a tear or two with this one, so think carefully about those key moments the two of you have shared together before purchasing. 

5. Fingerprint Jewelry 

Fingerprint jewelry is another great gift to give for marking life’s most treasured moments. The concept is straightforward: usually denoting a birth, you have the jeweler stamp or engrave an individual’s handprint (or footprint) on the face of a piece of jewelry of your choice.

Jewelry for fingerprints comes in a great many varieties: from cufflinks to necklace pendants, there are several types of customizable pieces to pick from, and in a selection of different materials, so that you can find the perfect style to suit the receiver. 6. Monogrammed Leather Goods

Leather goods are a great bet when it comes to high-quality gift options because there are so many different types of useful products to choose from – you’ll easily be able to find something no matter who you’re buying for. 

Taking one of these gifts – such as a wallet, handbag, or whatever else – and engraving it with something personal like initials, always goes down a treat. Monogrammed leather items are a brilliant option for style-conscious professionals, so be sure to investigate this option if that’s your person. 

7. Handwriting Keepsake Gifts

Many companies are now offering the ability to eternally preserve a person’s handwriting by engraving their words onto a myriad of different products – from jewelry to framed prints. 

This gift is ideal if you’ve recently experienced a loss in the family, for example, and want to give another loved one something meaningful to remember the person by. The choice is yours so far as what words, phrases, or messages you choose to immortalize, so think carefully about what might resonate best with the individual you’re giving the gift to. 

8. Personalised Children’s Books

For children, bedtime stories are one of many opportunities to delve into their imaginations, and personalized children’s books truly take this sentiment to new heights. 

This service has been around for quite a long time now, allowing you to insert your chosen child as the protagonist of the story and their friends and family members as central characters. From there, you can choose a story template that best fits the recipient, including their favorite themes and story archetypes to make for a story that’ll resonate with them like no other. 

9. Customized Puzzles

If you’re looking for something affordable but unique, customized puzzles can be a good idea for the right person. You’re given the option to choose from a selection of different puzzle types of varying complexities, that you can then customize with a picture (or pictures) relevant to that person’s life or your relationship with them. 

10. Custom Pet Portraits

When you’re trying to think of a great gift for someone, sometimes, you needn’t look any further than their pets. Given that people form such a strong emotional bond with their animals, any item uniquely related to them often goes down really well. 

One of the best options is a custom pet portrait. There’s nothing quite like a handcrafted piece of art by a skilled artist, so if your budget allows for it, consider this option for the pet people in your life. 11. Engraved Glassware

Glassware makes for an excellent birthday gift or one for Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, and engraving your gift can turn something nice but ultimately a little generic into something the recipient will cherish. 

Another particularly versatile option, you can choose from wine glasses, tumblers, beer mugs, and more. Think carefully about what your recipient usually drinks, and consider engraving it with their name, a special date, or a personal message. 

12. Personalized Birthstone Jewelry

Jewelry has featured a couple of times on this list, and with good reason. Nothing says ‘I love you’ more than a beautiful necklace or bracelet, and alongside other personalized elements, including the person’s birthstone as a central aspect can elevate the piece further. 

A natural choice for a significant birthday, utilizing a person’s birthstone in the piece alongside an engraving is a combination that’s sure to put a smile on their face.

13. Customized Family Portraits

If you’re buying for a proud mother or father, you can’t go wrong with a customized family portrait. 

If you go with this idea, make sure you investigate all the different possible art styles. Perhaps a basic sketch would align with your loved one most, or on the other end of the spectrum, you could choose a hand-painted, delicate illustration. Consider both the person’s personality as well as the sort of house it’ll feature in – both of these elements will be key deciding factors on the route you go down. 

14. Personalized Travel Maps

Personalized travel maps are another relatively new but popular product to hit the market. For those that travel a lot, they’re a fantastic option: the map, usually resembling the globe, is hung or fixed to the wall, and the receiver marks off each of the places they’ve visited in their years traveling.

With some maps, you ‘scratch off’ a top layer to reveal an image underneath, which is fully revealed once the person has been to each of the possible locations marked on the illustration. 

15. Custom Song or Soundwave Art

And finally, something a little bit ‘out there’ – custom song or soundwave art. Custom soundwave artworks display the audio wave of a person’s favorite song (or other significant piece of audio) as a piece of artwork, and there are many ways this can be done. 

For the music lover in your life, or for anyone who has a special connection to a certain arrangement of audio waves, this can be a particularly unique option to go for.

Wrapping Up

As you can see, there are a ton of great options to pick from if you want to create a custom, personalized gift experience for someone important to you. Take your time to consider your person’s personality and interests – as well as where they’re at in their life – and you’ll steer yourself towards getting them something truly meaningful that they’ll cherish for a lifetime.