noelle o designs

creativity + sewing + upcycling inspiration

art, collage art, craft, design, fabric, family, friends, holiday, projects, tiny

personalized gifts

I contributed to an article recently for a local paper, about simplifying the holiday season with home made gifts, the article is pack with ideas for getting crafty and using your thinking cap to gift it up this year. Here’s some expanding on handmade gift giving and a few ideas and concepts to keep in mind while creating.
No tutorial here, you have to make it up yourself, but hopefully I can inspire you in the right direction.

My husband is endlessly creative and clever, everyday I dream that his doodling and sketching skills will wipe off on me. The best are his doodles in church and folks reactions when he hands them a picture of themselves. In church once he drew a picture of a very-serious-about-reverance mom friend of ours, it was an illustration of the back of her head where her hairdo was messed up. When he passed the picture up to her, she burst out laughing and had to leave the meeting to compose herself, I though her kids would die of shock, thankfulness and then the giggles.

This little love note (above) has been around awhile (Q is now 15). It’s about the size of a business card and I don’t recall how it came about but she always has it hanging somewhere in her room. It’s a trimmed picture then added illustration with pens and markers– a daily affirmation everyone can appreciate.  Why not laminate a tiny love note to be kept in a wallet or backpack– a frequent reminder of a loved one’s awesomeness.


This is a piece of salvaged wrapping paper from last Christmas, I believe M (our 11 year old) saved it and framed it herself.  Simply a trimmed up picture and some kind words, it’s been on her night stand all year long.


A friend of mine made this box a few years ago- a plain wooden box (can be purchased at any local craft store), craft paint, collaged vintage picture clippings, modge podge and a bit of rick rack– all coming together to create a keeper. Add some personalized pictures and words for the perfect gift. There enough silly/inspiring/random/funny quotes flying around Pinterest to cover a box like this one hundred and fifty five times.


Another friend of mine gave this me after a trip we had taken to New York. Isn’t remembering a trip a close second-best part of a trip?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.