photo courtesy of Mulsanne

Designing and creating Greek gifts for your big sis, lil sis, big bro, pledge mom, etc. has always been a time consuming and expensive task. Greek life in general is expensive! From chapter dues, to gifts, housing and more it all adds up. But I’m sure as many would agree, you can’t put a price on the brotherhood and sisterhood that you gain from going Greek.

Fraternity & Sorority Gifts: The Must Haves

Now traditional sorority merchandise such as coffee mugs, key chains, sweatshirts, etc. are the staple of any new member. For this kind of gear, you want to order early and have it professionally made. For this, we would highly recommend checking out GreekU.com for their great quality, large selection and awesome prices.
What are the must haves?  We think you can’t go wrong with any of the following.

• Traditional Greek Sweatshirt
• Embroidered Hat
• Zip Up Sweatshirt
• Lettered T-Shirt
• Coffee Mug

Personalized Greek Gifts

Personalizing gifts can be both a fun and daunting task.  Creating a personalized gift requires a lot of time and often pre-planning, the right materials and tools.  But the great thing about this is that when you present it, odds are your gift will be unique and it won’t turn into a case of “Hey, you stole my idea!”

If the person you are giving the gift to is very sentimental, check out PhotoJojo for a great variety of photo themed gifts.  Maybe even make a gift as a graduation gift.  PhotoJojo’s most recent post about Photo Pencils caught our eye.  Definitely an interesting, unique, and clever spin to personalized gifts, not to mention inexpensive.  Now think of adding a Greek spin to this: use a group photo of the new class that just crossed, a photo of your pledge mom with her pledge sisters, or a fancy design of your letters.  Mix this in with making a board game with your own photos and you just might have created an awesome gift!

photo courtesy of photojojo.com

Where To Get Materials From?

So, if you are ready to start, go get the supplies.  But don’t be deceived, just because you are hand making gifts doesn’t mean they will be cheap.  Be wary of buying supplies at full price.  Here are a few good national chain stores to check out, depending on where you are located some may be in your area, maybe even all.
Michaels The Arts & Crafts Store – Michaels often has 50% off coupons in the newspaper or via their email list.
JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts – JoAnn also has coupons. Generally these are 40% off and in their newspaper and email newsletters.
Aaron Brothers Art & Framing – often has 40-50% off coupons in the Sunday newspaper, go look!

Good luck and if you make something wonderful, send us a picture, we’d love to feature it.