Birthday present for artist boyfriend?

Question

My boyfriend is a visual artist who airbrush paints and his birthday is coming up. I am pretty uncreative (can't paint, draw, etc) but would like to make him something. Whatever I make I'll make sure it is meaningful, maybe with a background story or joke we share, but I need some starting ideas please...anything would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

It may sound a little tacky, but you could make some sort of photo collage.  Like get a photo frame and make a collage of photos of the two of you... or you could get a photo frame and decorate it with heaps of tiny photos ... then put one big one of you two in the frame.  All you'd need to do is print the photos out at the right size (even if they're all in different sizes) and glue them onto a piece of card to make a collage ... or buy a wooden photo frame (or even make one out of a few layers of stiff cardboard and decorate it with photos.

Otherwise you could make a collage that would be relative to him... I came across this recently: http://yourmemorylane.com/

They make a piece of art in the form of a street (thus called "your memory lane") and put different street signs and people and cars and buildings in it that are relative to the person you're giving it to.  It's a good idea, (yes it's probably copyrighted but still! lol) and you don't need to be able to paint or draw or anything, just print, cut and stick!

Little scrapbooks are nice too ... just get a little notebook or sketchpad and fill it with different photos or write things or stick other things in, etc.

Good luck!!

Oh, or one thing that I made for my friend's 21st was tshirts... I got a childhood photo of her and put it on a tshirt with something like "look who's all grown up!" and put "happy 21st birthday!" on the back.  It's really quite easy to do ... once you've got what you want to print out on the computer, get some iron-on transfers which you can usually get from a computer supply shop or a stationary shop, flip the image on the computer (there are different ways of doing this depending on what programme you're using) so you end up printing out a mirror image, then iron it onto the tshirt (instructions on the pack of transfers).

Answer 2

I gave this idea to a friend once, and her boyfriend actually loved it, even though it was kinda mushy.

Go to the craft store, and pick up a wooden box. It doesn't have to be too big, but big enough for a picture to fit into. Buy a little heart&key charm, some wood stains or paints, craft glue, etc.

Decorate the box any way you imagine it. Glue the charm on the inside lid of the box, and on the inside bottom of the box, paint/write w/e the quote "he who holds the key can unlock my heart" (mushy, I know) Fill the box up with pictures of your favorite memories together..or anything that has a meaning to it. Or you could always buy some screen paper for your printer, and print out a really nice picture of you, iron it onto a pillow case, and put "Sweet Dreams" or something cute on it, so even when you're not there with him, you'll still be...

Answer 3

Buy him "vitamin P" or "vitamin D"  look for it in AMAZON

Answer 4

In my opinion, I think you should take some photos of his artwork..his favorite or best pieces...and put together a slideshow on a DVD. You can easily do this fo rnext to nothing..and you can easily incorporate some photos of the two of you and your history together.    Make it yourself with movie maker on your computer or get something done a little fancier with 3-d images...the cheapest I've found is http://www.ForMemoriesSake.com

the movie will focus on himi..and include you...be economical, and sentimental...You can't loose!