How can a Gift Card be a great personal gift?

Let's be creative with Gift Cards this year! 

Challenge yourself.

Giving and receiving gift cards can seem impersonal, but if you look at the big scheme of things, they are not. I suspect that most of us love to get them for then we don't have useless stuff hanging around. They allow the giver to be less stressed, and then they are able to more freely give the gift of self during this time which we all have to admit is usually stress-filled. Yet many of us have a sort of uncomfortable feeling when it comes to wrapping all the gifts, and we look at that thin piece of plastic we are going to present to our loved one. It just seems so impersonal.

But it doesn't have to be this way at all. With the right touch, a gift card can be a much more personal gift then giving that wonderful scent you love to the aunt whom it escaped your notice never wears perfume, or those slippers for your nephew who loves going barefoot.

Be the one to start a 'creative gift card giving' frame of mind to your family. Challenge and inspire others to do so also.

Thoughts:

• Give a gift card to a clothing store attached to a hand wrapped hanger with a potpourri bag.
• A gift card to a restaurant for a teen that doesn't drive yet for date night with the 'chauffeur service'.
• No teenager who does drive has said no to a gas station gift card, put it in a card that states there will be free vacuuming of the car by the gift owner (if one has the stomach such a thing), or maybe attach it to a tire gauge or wrap it in a chamois cloth.
• Have a reader in your family? Make a bookmark and give with a gift card to a bookstore (or if you draw my name, you can pay off my library fines).
• For mother or mother-in-law, a gift card to a store that she likes with a promise of driving, accompanying her shopping and then taking her out for lunch. Maybe even a picnic when the weather is warm again, if she wishes to wait that long to use that card.
• A gift card to a favorite gardening store tucked in a homemade gardener's tool belt.
• A card to your handyman's favorite hardware store with a bar of homemade super scrubber soap.
• Your fisherman's gift card to his favorite bait shop could be tucked inside a thermal-gel can holder, your hunter's gift card could be wrapped up with some homemade targets for practice, your golfer's gift card could be tucked in with some tees.
• Does your card receiver spend time out in the cold? Grab a couple of those insta-heat hand or feet warmers.
• Do they have a fun sense of humor? Wrap it up with fun socks, or maybe a bottle of bubbles.
• No young parenting couple will complain about getting that gift card to a nice restaurant tucked in with a homemade gift certificate for free babysitting.

So personalize that card because gift cards won't be boring if you aren't.
See what you can come up with.