By Nancy Buchanan, for Office at home

There are a few times in life when buying a gift at a store just won’t do, especially if it’s too late to get to a store. And it’s definitely time to make a gift at home when the gift recipient is important enough to create something truly unique and personal. Whatever your motives, here are a few ideas how you can create these unique gifts at home: custom note cards, padded notepads, stickers, and tee shirts.

^{Gifts to make at home}

Know the recipient

Chances are that if you are making a gift for a friend or loved one, you already know their favorite colors, hobbies, pets, and other interests. It is important to think through what it is that they like or don’t like before you dig into your gift idea. For my project, I wanted to put together several gifts for each of my 10 year old daughters. The gifts for my daughter Julia are shown above. They all incorporate her love of the color green, animals, and bright and cheerful images. Younger children might like to see more pictures of them, teenagers might want more humorous or irreverent gifts, and adults might want gifts that relate directly to their hobbies.

Create custom note cards

I always have a few boxes of blank note cards for my printer on hand. You can buy them at your local office supply store in a variety of colors and sizes. A stack of pre-made cards with designs the recipient loves can be an easy, inexpensive, and considerate gift.

• Start at the Template Gallery on Office Online
• Most note cards made for printing have a model number or template number on the package. I usually search for the template number on Office Online first to see if there are any templates already available for my note cards. For my daughter I used the Friendship Card. I printed the cards on blank note cards I purchased from Office Max.

   Note   If a template isn’t available specifically for the note card you have, look for one that is the same size. You can also look on the Web site for the maker of the note cards; they usually have templates for Microsoft Word available for download.

• The template opens in the program for which it was created, such as Word.

Produce padded notepads

Padded notepads use special glue called padding compound to stick a stack of pages together on one edge. You can purchase padding compound at most office supply stores. For this project you can print sheets with a decorative heading on the top, then stack the pages up and apply padding compound on one end to bind the paper together yet make it easy to tear a sheet off. Here is how I created 4 pads of paper, each with 40 sheets:

• In Word, start with a blank document and then change the orientation to be Landscape, the margins to be narrow, and to use 2 columns. You can download the document I created in Word 2007 for my daughters here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC300035581033.aspx.
• Use clip art and text to create 2 heading sections in the first column, and 2 heading sections in the second column, as illustrated here:
  
  
  ^{The document used to create notepad pages}
• Print 40 sheets of the document on your printer. You can use plain printer paper.

   Note   This can also be a great way to use recycled paper. Instead of printing on new paper, just print your design on the blank side of recycled paper.

• Cut each sheet of paper into 4 equal pieces. For example, cut the paper in the middle lengthwise and then again widthwise. Now you have 160 smaller pieces of paper.
• • Divide the pieces of paper into 4 stacks of 40 pieces and then follow the padding compound’s instructions to pad one edge of the pieces of paper. I purchased padding compound from GreenLightOffice.com.

   Note   My padding compound’s instructions said to use a vice to hold the pages together while you paint on the compound. I didn’t have a vice handy so just stacked the pages between books with the end being padded sticking out far enough for me to paint it.

Print custom-made stickers

Let’s face it: kids like to see their name in print. So making stickers for them using off-the-shelf blank sticker sheets and your printer can be an inexpensive way to brighten a child’s day (or reward good behavior). Here is how I make sticker sheets for my daughters.

• In Word, start with a blank document and then change the orientation to be Landscape, the margins to be narrow, and to use columns. For my stickers I used 3 columns. You can download the sticker sheets I created here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC300035611033.aspx.
• Use clip art and text to create a variety of stickers. My sticker sheet included 3 designs, so I filled each of the 3 columns with a different design.
• • Print your design on blank sticker sheets. I used white sticker sheets from Avery.
• Cut out the stickers

Design a personalized tee shirt

Most craft supply stores carry inexpensive solid-colored tee shirts. When you combine these tee shirts with tee shirt iron-on transfer sheets from your crafts or office supply store you can create great-looking wearable art to please kids and adults alike. Here are the steps I took to create a tee shirt for my daughters that feature a picture of our puppy, some text, and some clip art.

• In Word, start with a blank document and then change the margins to be narrow. You can download my tee shirt design here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC300035601033.aspx.
• Insert pictures, graphics, and clip art into the document.
• Insert text into the document via Word Art. It is important to use Word Art for text because it has to be flipped horizontally so that when ironed onto the shirt it will appear correctly. For example, in order for text to look like this after it is applied as an iron-on transfer
  
  
  
  It will need to look like this in Word:
  
  
• Print the page according to the tee shirt iron-on transfer page instructions. I purchased tee shirt transfers from Avery.

   Note   If the tee shirt you are printing on is dark in color, buy iron-on transfer sheets specifically made for dark colors.

• Follow the transfer instructions to iron the design onto the shirt.

   Note   Be sure to check the transfer manufacturer’s instructions to learn how to care for the shirt in the future. For example, my transfer advises washing the shirt in vinegar initially and then washing it inside out after that.

But wait, there’s more

Hopefully after you try a few of these projects you will realize that with a home printer and some specialty papers you can create thoughtful gifts that you are proud to give to friends and family.