Father's Day Crafts

Father's Day crafts are growing in popularity. It’s a no-brainer that kids give their moms something homemade for Mother’s Day. Why shouldn’t dad get the same kind of love and a special gift that will remain treasured as long as it lasts on his special day? Here are some ideas for crafts you can make for Father’s Day.

Picnic pot

Make something easy and useful that dad will love by crafting a picnic pot. Buy a terra cot pot, any size from, say, four inches up, along with the little plate that goes under the pot. This will be decorated and used as a caddy to hold napkins, utensils, condiments or whatever else you need to hold and carry around at a picnic or barbecue.

Paint the outside of the pot dad’s favorite color. Acrylic paint is a good choice because it is long-wearing, or use tempura paint and just spray it with a coat of clear spray varnish after the paint has dried.

Decorate the pot however you like. Decoupage pictures of all the kids on the sides, or trace everyone’s hand, have them sign them and paste those to the side. Or decorate with other paints, glitter, stickers, whatever you like. Spray again with the varnish if you like to make sure everything stays sticking down (if you use decoupage glue, you can just glue right over everything you put down and it will stay in place).

Picture Father's Day Crafts

All dads love to have pictures of their kids around, so why not take a cute picture of all the kids together and incorporate it into your Father’s Day crafts?

You can simply take a picture and put it in a plain wooden frame that the kids then decorate in the same way as the pot was decorated above, with paint, beads, torn up paper, glitter, stickers or whatever you want to use.

Or consider making the picture into part of another useful craft. Make color copies of a bunch of pictures, get a square block of wood from your local craft store, sand lightly and decoupage the pictures all over the wood like a collage. This could then be used as a paperweight, or make a pair to use as bookends.

Use your imagination to think of what else you might be able to cover with pictures. A pencil holder? A bookmark? What else?

Hand Print Father's Day Crafts

Parents always say their children grow up too fast. This gift, which can be repeated annually, will show just how fast. It involves making a simple dough that you then press your hand into and bake to preserve the handprint. (Young kids can do this with their parents’ help.)

To make the dough, start with a cup of water and a few drops of the food coloring of your choice. Mix up two cups of flour with one cup of salt and add to the water mixture. This isn’t an exact recipe. Mix it up and see if it feels stiff. If it’s too soft and runny, you’ll get air bubbles in your finished project, so add more flour if you need to.

Once you have a good workable dough, take a handful (about the size of a softball) and form it into a nice, smooth ball. Then form that ball into a flattened disk, using a rolling pin or your hands. It should be big enough for the child to make a full handprint, but not so big that there’s a lot of excess dough. It should also be about half an inch thick. If you need more or less dough, adjust now.

Press your hand into the dough. If you’re helping a small child, make sure that each finger goes firmly into the dough but not all the way through. Poke a hole or two in the top of the dough so you can run a ribbon through to hang the hand from.

Bake at 200 degrees for two or three hours. Don’t let it burn. When it’s cool, add the child’s name, age and the year and tie on a ribbon or some other means to hang the handprint.

Chore Coupons

If your dad is always bugging you to do your chores, make up a cute little coupon book including some of the chores you really don’t like to do. You can make this by hand or on the computer, just cut the coupons to be about four inches tall and six or eight inches wide.

Some chores you could list include:

• taking out the garbage
• cleaning your room
• changing the baby’s diaper
• mowing the grass
• doing the laundry
• doing the dishes
• helping dad with yard work
• helping mom put out holiday decorations

The list will depend on the chores in your family and the age of the person who is going to do the chores. Make up a bunch of each coupon, then stack them and use some cardboard or heavier paper to make a cover for your coupon book. Decorate the cover, and bind the book together with staples, or punch holes through each of the coupons and the cover and tie it with raffia or decorative ribbon.

Little book gift

Of course your dad is the greatest dad ever, so shouldn’t he be the subject of his own little story book? This is a great idea for families with multiple children because one child could write the story while another illustrated it.

If you don’t want to write a story, try a poem. Or just collect some nice thoughts you want to share with your father on his special day. Include some drawings and a cover made of card stock or construction paper. Decorate the cover, making sure everyone who works on the project signs the back.

And don’t feel like you have to use regular-sized paper. Make it a little book by cutting regular sheets of paper in half. Then you can fold those halves in half and make four “pages” out of one sheet of paper. Have fun and create a gift your dad will remember for a long time to come.

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