How to easily make custom gifts for friends and family

It’s the thought that counts, and these five thoughtful custom gift ideas will show your loved ones just how much you think of them. From custom mugs, t-shirts, bags, notebooks, and posters, you can create customized gifts in Canva and ship them directly to your home or loved ones.

Food labels may not sound like the most exciting gift but for the studious foodie in your life, they could be the dream present. Using Canva’s library of templates, you can start inspired or start from scratch and create a unique collection of food labels that reflect your loved one’s passion and personality.

And if they’re already super organised, why not create their new favourite mug? From inside jokes to Dad jokes, bad jokes, a heartfelt photo, a favourite movie quote, or some custom artwork, making a mug design is as simple as one, two, yippee. For a step-by-step guide on customizing gifts, and making awesome mugs, check out our video guide.

If baking is your love language, or your family and friends often demand you cook something for them instead of buying a gift, why not level up the presentation to match your delicious treats?

Whether it’s cookies, preserves, pickles or a fresh cake, creating a cute hang tag will add a beautiful touch and make your gift feel even more special. And you won’t believe how easy it is to create your own custom labels in Canva. And better yet, you can even get them printed and delivered all from the Canva editor.

Start inspired and search for ‘label templates’ in the search bar. From there, you can customize your design to suit your personality, style or even the holiday you’re celebrating.

Tote bags have long been one of the most popular bits of customized merch for events, bands, brands, and now your family and friends. Socks are a boring present but, provided they fit, they are practical and will be used.

A tote, on the other hand, isn’t boring and is super practical, likely to be used even more than socks, especially with your awesome customized design on it. Making and printing a unique tote bag is now so super easy, you’ll want to start a side hustle slinging bags. From photos, to artwork, your friend’s favourite lyrics, quote, or even an inside joke only two people in the world will understand; the world is your tote bag.

For all of these custom gifts, you can print them at home if that’s possible, send them to a local printer in your neighbourhood, or use Canva Print and they will be delivered to your doorstep. Once your design is ready, go to the menu bar and click the Print button. You’ll then be able to choose and customize your print options. And then enter your shipping and payment information. It’s that easy.

Custom gifts show you’ve put a lot of thought into your gift and speak louder than something generic. The only limit to what you can do is your imagination. If you want to take a deeper look, check out our video guide.