Gift messages? anyone help?

I would like to offer my customers an option to add a gift message/gift card free of charge with their purchases. This tends to add more orders, especially around the holidays. In any case, I add a "gfit message" to the option name with a text option BUT the gift message option appears on the product page. I would like the option to appear at checkout, not on the product page. Is there a way to do this or am I stuck with the gift message and empty text box on the bottom of each product listing?

What if a person buys multiple products and wants a separate message with each?

each order would have to be placed separately since each order would require it's own shipping charge. I haven't figured out a way to do this easily within one order since each item would require it's own shipping charge instead of the whole order being based on weight (as I have it set). It hasn't been an issue on the other platform I sell on (Amazon) but I am trying to figure out the best way to offer the gift message option so I don't lose web business to my Amazon store (where I pay fees)

would it be possible to add it as an attribute for that specific product? So the person could have multiple items with different messages for each item, if they were being shipped to the same locale?

I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out how to set up my cart to make this all work. I have never really had a person order multiple items that required multiple gift messages. Normally it's one to 3 items that are shipped to a fift recipient with one message