2025 Winners - David & Charles

We’re thrilled to celebrate The Bouquet in a Book by Lizzie Kaye and the team at David & Charles - this year’s Gift of the Year winner and a truly unique addition to the world of creative gifting. Designed as a complete “craft kit in a book,” this innovative title impressed judges with its charm.

In our winner’s Q&A, Lizzie shares the inspiration behind the idea, what the award means to her team, and how a love of paper flowers blossomed into something extraordinary.

How did it feel when you found out you were a Gift of the Year winner? 

Absolutely stunned and delighted! There were so many wonderful products nominated that we were just thrilled to be included among them, and then to find out we were winners was the icing on an already delicious cake. 

What does winning this award mean to you and your business? 

It's great to get recognition for a brand new product concept for our business; we have decades of publishing instructional art and craft books behind us but to start to offer these 'craft kits in a book' has really pushed our creative limits as a team and with our production partners. 
 
For our author, Pru, who has put in the most work designing all of the many petals you press out of the book to perfection and hand painting each of the watercolour papers which are beautifully reproduced throughout the book's pages; well you can see by the photo of us both holding the awards just how thrilled we are! 

Tell us the story behind your winning product—what inspired it? 

The Bouquet in a Book was inspired by the beautiful faux flowers and paper flowers that have become so popular in the last few years. I loved watching crafting videos of them being made, but knew I didn't have the skills or tools needed to give it a try – so I thought it would be great if everything you needed to get started was in one place – a book – so even non-crafty people like me could get involved, simply by pressing out the pieces you need. When I took the idea to the astonishingly talented Pru Rogers, the author of the book, she immediately got it and set about creating the incredible book that won Gift of the Year! 

What makes your product stand out in the market? 

I think it's a combination of the elegance and impact of the bouquet and the innovation behind the design. The final bouquet looks much more complicated than it actually is – the process is very forgiving, any little mistake you might make along the way completely disappears when it all comes together, so it's incredibly accessible for those new to crafting. This is a testament to the research and development process we went through creating it – a lot of time was taken over making sure it was easy and fun for anyone and everyone.

In terms of the design, the fact that every piece you need for the bouquet is in the book means that it can be easily given as a gift – and the book format makes it much simpler to pop in the post. 

What kind of feedback have you received from customers about this product? 

The feedback has been wonderful – customers are thrilled with how easy it is to do, and how beautiful the bouquet is. We've had customers buying multiple copies of the book too, one to keep for themselves to make and one to give as a present or to make up into a bouquet instead of gifting a bunch of flowers. Another important aspect we hadn't considered and was fed back to us is how perfect paper flowers are to give to people with allergies or in settings where fresh flowers aren't permitted. 

Can you share a fun or surprising moment from the product development journey? 

There are a couple of great moments from the development journey, the first being when we realised what we had in mind would be possible! It seemed too good to be true. Then when we got the first prototypes and saw how stunning the flowers were, even in their plain white paper form (which I still have a soft spot for!) there was a real moment of excitement. 

Who was involved in bringing this product to life, and how did you celebrate with your team? 

The whole team at David and Charles really pulled out all the stops for this book, but special credit goes to our amazing author Prudence Rogers, who completely got this idea and figured out how to make it both possible AND beautiful. Our incredible Production Manager Beverly Richardson was with us on it from the very beginning and it wouldn't be the book it is without her experience, knowledge, insight, and excitement.

How do you plan to leverage your Gift of the Year win in your marketing or future plans? 

The Gift of the Year award is such a fantastic stamp of approval to shout about in our marketing, it's a great sales point we have already added to our trade advertisements and product descriptions and has brought in so many orders already from stockists who've not heard of our brand before or considered stocking books within their gift offering. Plus it's amazing to see how many other opportunities are coming our way because of the win. 
 
We're really passionate to grow our sales within the giftware industry and having such a well known and respected award behind us now will hopefully elevate our brand within this sector. 

What’s next for your brand—any exciting projects or launches on the horizon? 

We have plenty of exciting new titles publishing here at David & Charles, we're especially excited for The Bouquet in a Book: Winter (publishing August 2025) The Bouquet in a Book: Spring (publishing April 2025) now we can see just how well the first book in this series has been received. 
 
In our craft book range we are rapidly growing our licensed brand list with Crochet Peppa Pig© and Knitting Peppa Pig© (including patterns for the new baby Evie!) and we are delving into the realms of Dungeons and Dragons™ with a series of officially licensed instructional art books coming next year. 
  
Find out more about The Bouquet in a Book and explore other David & Charles products here.