IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Describe a handmade gift you gave to a friend or relative

: You should say

what the gift was
who you gave it to and when
how you made it by hand
and explain why you gave a handmade gift to your this friend or relative

: Sample Answer

Thank you a lot for this topic. I will talk about a handmade gift that I gave to my younger sister when she was only 7 and how I actually made it

Well, the gift was a wooden doll (I must confess that doll did not look that great as I made it when I was only 15 years old and I had little skills making such things). Yet my sister loved it so much and I felt so proud for making this gift for her. It was a late winter evening probably in 2001 when I took my sister to the market to buy her a pair of shoes. On our way back to home, she showed me a large doll displayed in a fancy toy shop. She told me that she would love to own a doll like that. She knew the price of that doll would be really high and I did not have enough money to actually buy her that doll

This event made me sad a lot and I asked my father, who lived in a different city for his job to buy her a doll. He probably forgot about the doll and did not send any doll in next two weeks. My sister’s birthday was approaching and I wanted to make her a beautiful doll before her birthday. I used to make boats, wooden pens, and other types of toys in my childhood as a passion but making a doll was something I never thought I would do someday. However, I dared to make one and worked for more than 7-8 days to finally make something that I could claim as a doll. I took a fine quality wood large enough to give it a shape of a doll, used other tools, glue and other ingredients to make this doll. I painted that doll and tried to mimic my sister’s facial features in this doll. When I gave this doll to my sister, she was so amazed that she kissed me and thanked me again and again. She even recognised that I tried to mimic her face in that doll. Then I told her that ‘the name of this doll is Emmy’. She laughed and told me that it was even more beautiful than her

A few weeks later my father bought her a very expensive and beautiful doll but my sister was somehow convinced that the one I made was prettier. Maybe that was because of her love and affection for me

I basically wanted to make my sister happy and to give her something before her 8th birthday. I did not have enough money to buy her a big doll and I had some skills on making toys with woods and papers. Considering all these facts I was convinced that I should make a wooden doll by myself for my sister