We’ve all heard the saying “friends are the family that you get to choose for yourself”, and never a truer word has been spoken. Friends are so important at any point in our lives, so it’s not surprising there is an international day dedicated to celebrating our friendships.  

World Friendship Day, celebrated on 30th July, is a national day which allows us to celebrate our friends and share how grateful we are to have them. If you’re guilty of not actively showing much appreciation or gratitude to those who have stuck by you through thick and thin, this upcoming national day could be a great one for you to pencil in! 

Giving a gift to your besties on the 30th July will probably completely shock them, but give them the nicest surprise they could ask for. However, if monies tight or you want to put more ‘heart’ into a gift than money, you could consider getting a little crafty and creating a gift yourself. 

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be the artiest person out there. Take a look at the 5 ideas below for some DIY gift inspiration that is made with love. 

FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS WITH A TWIST

Friendship bracelets might have been around forever and certainly aren’t anything ‘new’, however, they can be adapted to feature something personal to your friend and are super easy to make when you know how to.  

Firstly, you’ll need some material, like cotton threads. Then, any extras like beads, charms or jewels. A great idea is to figure out the birthstone of your friend and purchase a small jewelled charm in the colour of her birthstone. You can also get extras like glitter threads or toggle clasps – it depends how professional you want yours to look! 

There’s a really easy to follow guide to making friendship bracelets over at Hobby Craft here. It should give you some ideas on how to create one, and then you are free to be as creative as you like!  

A PHOTO COLLAGE CARD OR WALL PRINT

It’s the sentimental gifts that count and nothing sparks nostalgia and emotion like photographs. If you’re both on Facebook, have a look at all the photos tagged together over the years, and start saving the best ones into a file. Then, you have two options, depending on how creative you are!

The first one is to use a service like Snapfish or Photobox, where you upload your images and work with an online template to create a photo collage card, canvas or even a book dedicated to showcasing all your favourite snaps together.  

Or, if you have your own editing software like Photoshop, Illustrator or Publisher, you can start the design yourself. There are also apps like Canva which are totally free, that allow you to upload images and add creative text to them.  

Have a look at what is do-able for you and get working on a visual friendship shrine!  

PERSONALISED CUPCAKES

It’s hard to find a friend who won’t appreciate cake! Why not bake up a selection of cupcakes, with some form of special touch that means something to your friend? It could be something as simple as including both your initials onto the top of each cupcake, or decorate them so that they spell out a message, such as ‘thank you’ or ‘my bestie’ – you can be as personal as you like! 

Baking cupcakes for a friend means you can get as adventurous as you like with the fillings, and because you’ll want them to love the cakes, you’ll surprise yourself at how much care you take.  

Some favourites include putting jam and cream in the middle, making rainbow coloured cakes, or even printing off a photo of the two of you onto sugar paper and placing on top of a cupcake or two! 

PERSONALISED CUPCAKES

You might not be a drawer or a painter, but there are ways around it if you wish to gift your friend a piece of art for them to keep that captures your friendship in one single image.  

Line drawing is becoming huge, where an image is made up of continuous lines resulting in a minimalist, ‘scandi’ style illustration.  

First, find a picture of the two of you where it’s easily can be outlined. With tracing paper, trace over your outlines, making sure anything that establishes you both is included, like curly hair or a certain item of clothing. Place the tracing paper onto an A4 sheet and draw over the lines so that the tracing transfers to the A4 sheet. Go over the lines as clearly as you can, aiming to be quite arty as you go. 

If you’re feeling a little braver, you can easily watch a YouTube video of a professional showing you how to do a line drawing for beginners. Take in how they do it and try to re-create something similar with your own picture. You can either print on a card and gift in a ‘please do not bend’ envelope, order frame it.  

A CUSTOM BOUQUET

If you haven’t the budget for a lavish, expensive bouquet, why not start by buying a small bunch of flowers from a supermarket and then adding in any blooms you can pick from outdoors – you’d be amazed at some of the flowers you can find when out in the countryside! 

Once you have a bundle of blooms, tie together with strands of ribbon or bottom, making bows and or wrapping in cute printed paper. A messy, ‘rustic’ looking bouquet that appears hand-picked is much more sentimental than a pricy bunch sent from a national retailer!  

There will be lots of YouTube accounts dedicated to making your own gifts at home, so don’t be afraid to search for some inspiration if you want to carry on researching ideas.