The Procrastinator’s Gift Guide to Easy & Affordable Giving
Christmas comes in just one week, and it’s probably not just us, but this year’s late Thanksgiving really threw us off, and we feel more behind than we do most years! At Caravan, two of our main goals are affordability and ease, so with those two ends in mind, we’ve put together a procrastinator’s gift guide: Easy and affordable gifts that require no special craft supplies. We’ll add our tips and insights to make these gifts as quick and painless as possible!
Calendars
price to download: $5
price to print: apprx. $2 each
give to: neighbors, teachers, coworkers, book club, family; anyone you give to in bulk!
pictured above: 1, 2, 3, 4
One of our favorite gifts to give is a calendar. For the past several years, we’ve given calendars as gifts to coworkers, clients, and neighbors. Year after year friends tell us how much their families enjoy changing the months on the calendars. It is a way for your friends to remember you throughout the year, not to mention, they might appreciate not receiving another plate of cookies.
All of our color calendars are small to optimize printing costs for you! We strongly recommend taking your calendars to be printed at a local print shop rather than your home printer, but you’re the judge on how well your printer works! At a print shop, if you supply your own cardstock, you would expect to pay about $0.60 per sheet, give or take, which is about $1.80 per calendar. Add an envelope (size A1) and a cover page (included in the download), and you’re all set!
Our Life Is Beautiful calendar is larger (5×7) and prints 2 months per page, but in black and white. So your paper cost goes up, but your printing cost goes way down. We would expect most print shops to be able to print these for under $3 each if you supply your own paper.
As an extra time saver for a little more money, ask the print shop about cropping and drilling your calendars. Not all print shops will do this in-house, but those that do can save you a lot of time by cutting all your calendars at once and drilling a small hole at the top! Depending on how many calendars you are printing, this $10 to $15 addition is a worthy investment!
See all our calendars!
Prints
price to download: $5-6
price to print: apprx. $0.60 each
give to: close friends, family members
pictured above: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Easy, inexpensive, and meaningful! We offer a variety of prints that can be printed at 5×7 or 8×10. Simply choose a print that resonates with you or that reminds you of your friends, print on cardstock, and frame in an inexpensive frame (we love Ikea frames!). Remember, you keep the file and you’re allowed to print as many of these as you like.
See all our gift-worthy prints.
Stationery
price to download: free
price to print: $0.60 per card
give to: close friends, family members, teachers
pictured above: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
At Caravan we have many different note card designs that are all free to download! Stock up on the designs you love best, and print out sets to give as gifts. Simply buy envelopes in a coordinating color (we love Poptone envelopes), tie the cards and envelopes together with some ribbon or twine, and you’re all set!
See all our free stationery.
Giant Wall Art
price to download: $5-$12
price to print: $7 for largest size
give to: besties, close family
pictured above: 1, 2, 3
Our chalk art has long been a favorite of House of Smiths readers! Why not give a giant statement piece away to friends who have admired yours? You simply download the artwork and bring the files into a local Staples, and they do the rest! Although times may vary depending on how busy the copy center is, this has typically taken us 10 minutes in the store to have our files printed.
If we send the files ahead of time, all we need to do is run in, pick up, and pay! We like Staples because of everyone we’ve tried, they offer the largest prints, but you can call ahead to any print shop. Ask them if they have a large format black and white printer used for engineering prints. Most Staples have these, but not all do, so we definitely recommend calling ahead!
See all our giftable chalk art.
So good luck wrapping up your holiday shopping this year! We hope that we’ve given you some ideas here to make things a little easier. Feel free to use the code “houseofsmiths20” for 20% off your order!
Kristen says
While I love the 5×7 calendars, I have a few tips: they take awhile to cut out, trim off everything you don't want to see (rights of use), and getting them bound can add up. I had them printed on cardstock, cut them myself, had them bound and each one ended up costing about $8-10. Not a bad price; however, it took 2 trips to the copy story and a lot of trimming time. They do make a great gift!
Anonymous says
oh how I love chalkboard art! Thanks for the post!!