Personalised Gifts Made in Yorkshire: Handmade Keepsakes from Our Hessle Studio

There is a particular kind of gift that only really works when a person made it. Not a warehouse, not a machine that prints whatever gets uploaded, but someone who reads your order, sets out your names, and checks it before it goes anywhere. That is what we do. We are Duffy's Creations, a husband and wife studio in Hessle, just outside Hull, and every print, scratch card and foiled keepsake we sell is made to order by us, Lee and Sam, here in East Yorkshire.

If you like the idea of buying a personalised gift straight from the people who make it, here are some of our favourites, all made by hand in Hessle, from 60p up to a framed piece for the wall. We send a proof of every one before we print it, so you get to check the details first.

1. For a Hull fan, their stadium on the wall

Some gifts only make sense if you are from here. The MKM Stadium Hull City Football Print draws the ground in either a day or a night design, so you can pick the version that looks most like the match they remember. It starts at £10 for an A5 print and goes up to £32 framed in black, white or grey, in A5, A4 or A3. If the person you are buying for follows the other side of the city, there is an MKM Stadium Hull FC Rugby Print in the same day or night style, at the same prices. For more Tigers gift ideas, we put together a whole guide to Hull City personalised gifts.

2. The wedding favour we are known for

The gift that put us on the map, quite literally, is our wedding favour scratch card. Guests scratch the panel to see if they have won a drink, a gift or a little cash, and it doubles as a talking point on the table. They are 60p each, with four designs to pick from (plain, thank you, eucalyptus and heart), and there is no minimum order, so you can do a handful or a hundred. You can see all four in the wedding favour scratch cards collection, and if you are planning a wedding we walk through the whole idea in our guide to personalised wedding scratch card favours.

3. A portrait actually drawn by hand

When people ask what "made by hand" really means, this is the one we point to. The Personalised Family Drawn Portrait is drawn from a photo you send us, by a real illustrator, not run through a filter. You upload your reference photo, add any notes for the artist, and we draw your family, pets included if you want them. It is our most involved piece, so it starts a little higher, from £26 for an A4 print up to £45 for a framed A3 with a mount. If you are weighing up buying direct against a marketplace, we made the honest case for it in buying personalised gifts direct instead of through Etsy.

4. A map of the two places that matter

For a couple, the Two Location Love Map Print sets two places side by side: where they met and where they live now, the town they grew up in and the one they moved to, wherever their story runs between. You give us the two locations and a line of your own, and we draw the maps to match. From £10 for a print up to £31 framed. It is a quiet favourite for anniversaries and one of our gifts for her best sellers, though it works just as well for anyone.

5. A family name print for the hallway

If you want the whole household on the wall, the Custom Scrabble Tile Print spells out your family names as interlocking scrabble tiles, the way a real board looks mid game. It is a nice one for a busy hallway or a kitchen shelf. From £11 for a print up to £29 framed, in A5, A4 or A3. You will find more along the same lines in our Family collection.

6. A keepsake with a real foil finish

Foil is the finish people remember. We press it by hand, so a name or a date catches the light in gold, silver, rose gold or one of more than thirty shades. Our foiled tickets start at £10, with £1 added for a foil colour, and they turn a concert, a show or a save the date into something worth keeping. Have a look through the foiled tickets, and if you like knowing how a thing is made, we explained the process in how our foiled keepsakes are made.

Why buy from a small Yorkshire studio

Buying from us means buying from two people, not a faceless website. Everything is made to order in our studio in Hessle (HU13). Once you have ordered, we put your details into the design and email you a proof, and nothing goes to print until you have seen it and said yes. When we frame, the frames are solid wood, made in the UK, in black, white or grey. The front is 1.2mm acrylic rather than glass, which is worth knowing if the print is going somewhere with small children or pets, or anywhere it might get knocked. One thing to be straight about: because each piece is personalised to you, we cannot take it back for a change of mind, so that proof is your chance to get every name, date and spelling right.

Where to start

If you are not sure where to begin, our best sellers are a good read on what other people are sending, and the gifts for her and gifts for him pages let you start from the person and work back to the gift. Or just message us. We are a small studio, so it really is Lee or Sam who reads it, and we are happy to help you pick.