Hi, I love looking at your blog and looking for inspiration on new projects but its my mums 40th birthday and I want to make her something special and don’t really know what to do she’s not really into jewelry and i’ve got a mental block. Can you suggest anything ?
I can tell you from experience what I’ve given as gifts that have been really special and well received.
- The first sounds cheap and corny but I’ve done it several times and it has gotten the biggest positive reaction of all: a list of reasons I love someone. If you are having a party be prepared to read it out loud! I just did this for my mom on mother’s day and my best friend for her birthday. So think up forty reasons (funny, little things, big things) why you love your mom and she will always treasure it long after all the other gifts have been thrown away.
- Other ideas are books you make (simple book binding or just glue on an image/photo onto a notebook) here: truebluemeandyou.tumblr.com/tagged/books
- You could make one of those maps of where your mom was born, lived, lives now etc… with a roundup of ideas for that here.
- I love this jersey no sew scarf made from a square of material and just cut and fringed here.
- Easy and cheap sugar scrubs here.
- I put all the cheap but thoughtful gift ideas I liked the best here: truebluemeandyou.tumblr.com/tagged/gift
Any suggestions from the creative people on Tumblr?
- nuestrahermana said: For the person with the question about presents for their mother: Last year I made a “spa” pack with hand knit colorful washcloths, handmade soap, lotion bars & lip balm. Here are some easy suggestions: DIY sugared pecans, soy wax candles in recycled tea cups/mason jars/jars, DIY resin charms are SUPER easy and themed gift baskets are fabulous too! :) Good luck!
- maddisnow answered: Maybe make a decoritve picture frame or some sort of wall art?
- mamaguru answered: My sister just turned 40. I made a book with 40 reasons she’s wonderful and 40 things to look forward to. She loved it.
- a-forest-grew answered: What about home decor type things?
- suchan0utrage answered: I have done the list also, but instead I got a deck of cards and printed each one out, then glued them to the back of each card.
- authoredadornmentsshop answered: Maybe you could take an old picture of her/your family and blow it up and frame it or something.
- sk8itange answered: Vintage book clutch you have great tutorials on that,and if you do it with a twist of a book cover made by you that would be a great gift.
- jaz0ful answered: You could do like a voucher book with things she can reedeem like a foot rub, a dinner cooked by you and just little things that don’t cost
- aboutshed answered: I would log onto Pinterest and search terms for DIY gifts, or “turning 40” etc. Also try entering in some of your mom’s interests and search.
mamaguru replied to your photo: Is it real or is it Photoshoped - It’s Aways…
Huge boost to my self-esteem. I knew they were photoshopped, but this makes it real. Why do we have such a fake perception of beauty?
Truebluemeandyou: I think it’s because of Adobe Photoshop. Truly. I mean celebrities were altering themselves during the time of silent movies getting teeth pulled in some cases to make cheek bones appear more prominent, but you can now alter people in videos using products from the Adobe Suite (Brittney Spears).
When I am retouching photographs it is so so so easy to go overboard using Photoshop. It is beyond simple to lighten eyes to make them look greener, more amber, brighter blue etc… The liquify tool literally lets you suck in a stomach, push breasts up, make a neck longer, make a waist appear tiny, or expand biceps (really simple to do to celebrities photographed on a white background). The hue saturation tool lets you take all the yellow out of teeth (quick and dirty fix) and there are a million programs like Kodac GEM (which I have) that instantly smooth out wrinkles without blurring eyes, or other non-skin parts of the photo.
Note: When I do historical retouching it is often bringing the exposure back to where it originally was and I never alter the physical characteristics of anything or anyone ever.