Perfumes, the latest fashion and accessories and even jewellery — you can buy expensive stuff for your friend and make her happy on her birthday. But there’s nothing like gifting your buddy a scrapbook which has memorable photos and quotes about the birthday girl by her best friends.
Hand-made and custom-made scrapbooks are popular gifts among college students who feel a scrapbook is not only a creative present, but also adds a personal touch to gifting. Engineering student Anusha Bindumalyam was gifted a customised scrapbook by her friends last week on her birthday. “It was a huge surprise for me. The scrapbook has my photo on the cover page and on the inside, there is a photo of me with each friend on separate pages. My friends are planning to write in that scrapbook soon,” she says excitedly. On the last page of the scrapbook, Anusha’s friends have made a collage using their best pictures. “If anybody from our group is celebrating their birthday, we make sure we give them a handmade/personalised gift apart from clothes/footwear etc. We gave a scrapbook to another friend on her birthday last week. Last year, we made a collage on a tile and gifted it to a friend,” she says. Student of Christ University Mansi Bhageria says she made a scrapbook all by herself and gifted it to her close friend on her birthday. “I gathered pictures of her with all her friends and designed the scrapbook. Then I sent it to every friend of hers and also her family members so that they could write something about her,” says Mansi, who feels that hand-made scrapbooks are much better than materialistic gifts.Biotech student Shwetha Nagesh and her friends recently gifted a friend a scrapbook. Shwetha says she got the idea of making a scrapbook, thanks to slam books. “Instead of purchasing a slam book, we thought it would be better to make a scrapbook by ourselves so that it would look more innovative and creative. It cost us Rs 350 in total, that is just around Rs 25 per head as we’re a group of 12 to 13. We also gave other gifts apart from the scrapbook,” she says.So next time you’re stuck wondering what to gift your friend, try making a scrapbook as there’s nothing more fun than receiving a book filled with memories.
Ikyatha Yerasala The Asian Age