the gift thing is a result of having linked nands, though i'm not sure why your themes wouldn't be the same on both...
but as for getting into hbl from emunand, hold Y while starting the hbl cia from emunand. this creates a file with a name like this hblauncherloader_otherapp_payload_OLD-10-3-0-28-EUR.bin on your sd root.
open this file with an editor and use textsearch for "boot.3dsx" and rename it like hbl8.3dsx
now, you gotta take the boot.3dsx file from the homebrew starterkit and rename it like hbl8.3dsx, put it on your sd root, save everything and then, hbl.cia from emunand should get you into hbl again.