For those of you looking for a small, but meaningful gift to stuff into a stocking or to give to a co-worker, teacher or doorman, I'd like to introduce you to three fun companies that make small personalized gifts with a huge effect.

Personalized Watches from ewatchfactory

This [site[(http://www.ewatchfactory.com/) essentially allows you to create your own, affordable watch. You can choose from a view watch styles, and then upload your own image to adorn the background. Maybe you want to give your friend a watch with a picture of the two of you together? Maybe a nice photo that you took or found somewhere that would make a stylish accessory gift? I personally think that the images ewatchfactory shows of its watches are only a small portion of the beauty you could create on their site.
After uploading an image of your choice, you can also change the strap and the hands, as well as how the hours are marked on your custom background. A typical watch comes out to about $30, which I think is a fair price for such a personal gift. Personalize a watch

Custom Beef Jerky from SlantShack Jerky

You've probably heard us mention them before, which is because it's so amazingly delicious -the customized Beef Jerky from SlantShack Jerky that is. You can choose from different marinades, rubs and glazes. And you can add a note "hey, I made this just for you!". It comes in a nice see through pouch that will fit nicely into a stocking. Prices start at $10. Build your own beef jerky.

Customized Gemstone Earrings from Gemkitty

Gemkitty is a wonderful choice if you want something precious (but not too expensive) as the stocking stuffer for a dear one. On their website, you can create beautiful earrings and necklaces. Earrings start at $38, and you can choose from hundreds of gemstones, many different styles and two metal choices to create an earring that is exactly her style. And Gentlemen, here's your chance to score big: Find out what her favorite outfit is (ask her, ask your daughter, ask her sister, pay attention to what she's wearing), and then pick those gemstones that will match that outfit. Outcries guaranteed. Create a customized earring.

As promised, I will post some customized gift ideas every Thursday on this blog, as the Holiday Season draws closer. Today, I'll introduce you to three corporate gift ideas. There's a lot of companies that let you buy personalized pens etc in bulk, at a cheap price. But many of those have boring gifts (pens? golf balls?), stuff that everyone gives, and that only begins to get cheap for really high quantities. I have found design-your-own websites to be a better option - they are often able to provide discounts if you buy in bulk, but they usually carry higher quality, and there are no setup fees. So, without further ado, here three ideas for great promotional gifts for employees, clients and anyone you can think of:

Personal Wine

I must admit I didn't find Personal Wine myself- my parents found it, and ordered a wine bottle for me for my birthday. The wine was great - they have a very decent selection of wines on the site, starting at $19 for a regular bottle. Mini Bottles can be customized for just below $5 a piece, which gets cheaper the more you buy. I like the concept because it's something you can really enjoy, and it's super easy to design your own label for the wine bottle. If you happen to be in a state that doesn't allow alcohol to be shipped, you can also order custom labels and apply them to wine yourself. I think it's a great gift idea, and as a client or employee, it's a very unusual gift to receive!

Element Bars

Custom energy bars by Element Bars is the perfect corporate gift idea if you're in the business of health, fitness and nutrition. Weight Watchers, I'm looking at you: Have you gotten your holiday gifts yet? On the Element Bar's site, you can create your own nutrition bar by choosing from four "cores" (e.g. a chewy core), and then fruit, nuts, sweets and boosts. So once you have your perfect formula all set, you name it and are delivered a box of 12 bars with a price tag starting at a mere $1.99 per premade nutrition bar or $2.99 per custom bar (depending on what you put in it. If you order 200 element bars or more, you can get a bulk discount, as well as a nutritional consultation. They even offer marketing and promotional support, and since I know the founder, Jonathan, I know it will be great! Element Bars are all natural, handmade and then delivered to your door (or mail room) freshly baked.

Design A Tea

Design A Tea is one of those secret tips that only a few lucky people know about. But it's a wonderful site - not only as a promotional gift! On the site, you can choose a base tea and add favorite flavors similar to how you create your own chocolate bar on our site. You can personalize your tea mix with a name as well, of course. For businesses and events, Design a Tea also offers free custom labeling on our Design a Tea custom blends. Business logos can be incorporated on the label for no additional cost, by emailing the logo and details to Brian at brian@designatea.com after placing your order. My custom tea mix came out to $4.75, which is a very reasonable price for a truly unique gift idea. What would you mix?

And of course, our chocolate bars make a great corporate gift, too! Find more info on our Bulk Info page, and email me so I can make you a great quote! Reference customers include the Hilton and Etihad Airways.

Stay tuned for more personalized gift ideas next week!

Many of you try us out for the first time as a unique gift - a personalized chocolate bar or a chocolate gift certificate for your loved ones. But as you know from this blogs Customization Tag, we're not the only company that allows you to create thoughtful, personal and most of all unusual gifts online. With the holidays coming up, I will use this blog to introduce you to a few personalized gift ideas - each week a few more websites. Enjoy!

Personalized Gift Idea for Him

If "he" is a passionate, or even just hobby golfer, he will love Lindgolf! On this website, you can design your own golf club in three easy steps. First, you can measure yourself (with assistance if you like), to determine the correct flex, grip size and golf shaft length for you. Then, you can customize your golf club by choosing gender, dexterity and club loft, and you can personalize it with different colors. Since all these choices seem to require a lot of knowledge, and are very personal, I highly recommend a gift card from Lindgolf. You can even email it on if you like (just as ours if you didn't know), which makes it a very convenient gift for a "he" that doesn't live close by.

Personalized Gift Idea for Her

A classic holiday gift is jewelry, of course. But if you don't want to give the same old stuff that everyone else is wearing, too, consider Gemvara. On Gemvara's site, you can customize rings, necklaces and their pendants, as well as earrings. From the large selection they have available, find a style you like, and then give it your own personal touch by choosing the color and type of accent stones as well as the type of metal used. I think what's really most remarkable to Gemvara is that you can rely on the design of a professional, choose the one you like the most, and then customize it with the colors and metals you like. A great way to provide guidance in the customization process! The jewelry doesn't come cheap, so this would probably be best as a gift for the special women in your life. Although they have men's jewelry as well!

Personalized Gift Idea for a Kid

A super fun mass customized product I recently discovered is Superstructs. I kind of want one! Superstruct Kits are essentially an advanced and smarter lego, wether it's a kit for a pink fairy garden for a girl, or a motorcycle kit (for anyone really. That's what I want!). They won awards for being so valuable both as education and entertainment. Only very recently did they introduce their "Custom Kit": In a first step, you drag and drop some of the models into the kit. You can then personalize your gift by choosing from 12 fun templates and adding your child's name - which is printed on the box. And that's then delivered directly to you - or your nephew/ niece, or a lucky kid somewhere else in the world.

More personalized gift ideas next week!

As you know, chocri was the first company in the world to invent customized chocolate bars, and wow, are we proud of that. Besides us though, there are many other cool examples of mass customization, and today I'd like to introduce you to our good friends over at Coco Myles, where you can design your own dress.

It's every woman's dream. In the design your own dress section of the site, you can choose from 8 styles for the bottom of your dress, as well as 10 styles for the top part of your dress - and you can mix and match them to create the perfect dress. So you want a ball gown with strapless top? No problem. Or a scoop neck with a bubble skirt? Works just as well! You can then pick the fabric of the dress, the color of course, nice beading on the dress, and you can add a shawl or sash or bow to select combinations. All in all a wonderful playground for everyone who read princess books as a child (and which girl didn't?).

Matter of fact, it's not just for playing though - the dresses are not more expensive than a dress you would buy in a store! Take the dress in the image on the side for example. It's from their "celebrity inspired" line, where they take dresses celebrities wear and the recreate them in a similar fashion - only that you can customize it. I customized it by choosing red and the color "chocolate" (how much better could a dress be? Ok, I'm biased. I hear chocolate and am all for it.). The dress is $144. Have any of you ever been shopping for a bridesmaid dress or prom dress? I thought so. $144 looks nearly as sweet as honey chocolate drops!

Speaking of bridesmaid's dresses - that's actually Coco Myles specialty. The idea is that the bride picks the fabric, and within that limitation, the bridesmaids can customize the perfect dress for their preferences and body type. That way the bride has a great looking party to surround her on the big day, and the bridesmaid's have a dress they actually like and can wear again. Pretty nice idea!

Design your own dress with Coco Myles

What mass customization business is your favorite (besides us, of course)? Let us know in the comments! We love customization and companies that give the reigns to their customers, and we want to connect with all of them! Another great place to learn more about design-your-own websites is egoo-journal, a blog on customization and personalization where I guest blog sometimes as well.