Many years ago, in my ‘Corporate America days’, I was invited to join in welcoming the birth of the first baby of one of the district sales reps. Someone had come up with the idea to create a unique gift for the baby that marked the sales team’s collective good wishes by creating a personalized baby blanket with everyone’s name embroidered on the blanket.
I always thought that was a beautiful way to express the department’s sentiments with a unique gift that would be cherished forever. That thoughtful gift impressed me and I kept it in the back of my mind.
Around that same time, I visited an outdoor flea market and came across a booth where they were selling software programs, including one that enabled me to build my own crossword puzzles. Personal computers were in their infancy at the time and I had just purchased my first one. Frankly, I was looking for things to do with it, and creating puzzles seemed like a fun thing to do! To give you an idea how long ago that was, the software was on a 5-1/4” floppy disk!
Well, coupled with the idea of creating unique gifts like the baby blanket, I started creating “personalized” crossword puzzles as fun gifts for my family and friends. Often, doing the puzzles at a party turned out to be the highlight of the event and everyone had a great keepsake to take home with them afterward to mark the occasion.
Fast forward to today, and after creating countless puzzles, I wanted to share my tips for coming up with the words and clues so that others could benefit from my trials and tribulations. I’m happy to offer my tips for creating crossword puzzles, and for those who might not want to actually take the time to manipulate puzzle-making programs, I also offer this service through Personalized Crossword Puzzles. Whether you use Personalized Crossword Puzzles to create the final product or do it yourself, I wish you many good times in creating unique gifts to your family and friends.
George Pike