Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Father's Day Gifts

Wow, this week has been full of lost of GREAT Father's Day gifts. One thing I keep coming back to is that I don't want to make something that my Husband and our Fathers already have. How many cans turned into pencil holders can you have? While wall hangings with hand prints are great, even if they have been given before, still some times it is nice to take a break. I wanted to find inspiration for something that is sentimental and useful all at the same time. This is no easy task when you want to think outside the box.

I found an idea about making shoe odor and moisture neutralizers using kitty litter inside a sewn pouch. Then I got the idea to add footprints to them. At first I thought about just adding my children's footprints to the fabric. But I knew they would be on the small side. So I thought I would use my own foot as a template to enlarge the foot. Now comes the sentimental side. It got me thinking about following in footsteps. It got me thinking about how as kids we walk in our Father's shoes for fun. I remember doing it myself a time or two and now my kids like to put on my husband's shoes. So I came up with my boy's foot prints on one side and my husband's foot prints on the other. Then these feet will go in my Father-in-Law's shoes. They are cute little pillows with his son's and grandson's footprints on them. They can be used in his shoes or any other place he wants to wick up moisture and/or odor.

I used:
-material scraps that were fairly plain and lighter in color so the prints would easily be seen.
-Fabric paint.
-For the filling I opted to use a product called "Yesterday's News" which is a kitty litter but it is recycled news paper made into pellets. I normally use it in the litter boxes in my guinea pig cages. Don't worry I used fresh litter. ;)
-I also have a couple of silica gel packets that I had saved (for who knows what reason). I will add one packet to each "foot" for added moisture control.
-I also have some essential oils on hand (you can get them at a health food type store). For this I decided on peppermint. Though lavender would also be nice.

I am trying very hard to make use of what I have on hand, instead of using it as an excuse to run out and buy something new for my crafting. ;)

I painted the bottoms of my Husband's and son's feet with fabric paint. Then I had them step onto the fabric to transfer their prints. While I held down the top and bottom of the fabric I had them step off the fabric.

This shows the fabric wrong sides together. I wanted to show you how I lined up the feet. Turn the right sides together ( for this you will want to use the right foot print for one and the left footprint for the other so they curve the same way). I tried to line up my son's footprint in the middle of his Dad's footprint. Be careful and not get to close to the instep.

Pin the fabric layers together on with the large footprint facing up. This way when you go to cut around it you can make sure not to cut too closely to the foot.

Leave yourself a generous boarder around the footprint. Try not to indent too much for the instep.

Sew all the way around the foot. Leaving an opening at one end so you can turn it right side out.

For the filling. I used an unscented kitty litter. I thought about using coarsely ground coffee but decided that I wouldn't want coffee in my shoe. I like coffee in my mouth and the smell in my nose but not mixed with feet. ;)

This is a recycled product (no I didn't use it in the litter box first!) It is news paper and is super absorbent and traps odor well (at least in the litter box it does). Still I wanted to add a scent. Peppermint is very invigorating. It is used in those hot/cold packs that are filled with herbs flax seeds and wheat berries. My boys said it smelled like candy canes in the craft room.

I mixed in a few drops into the kitty litter. With essential oils you don't need a lot.

I then put a silica gel packet in the toe area of the pouch and filled my foot with the scented kitty litter.

These don't need to be stuffed full. In fact 3/4 full is plenty. It will make it easier to get them into a shoe since you can shift around the filling.

I hand stitched the opening closed. I also wrote my son's name next to his print with his age and the year.

I also wrote my husbands name, his age and the year around the heal of his print.


This is the card I made up to tie onto the feet when I gift it to my Father-in-law. I came up with my own saying because I couldn't find one to convey the idea of a son and a grandson walking in his footsteps.

I know that sometimes our post get a little long. I hope that you will forgive me because I have a couple other Father's day gift ideas to share with you. Anjeanette and Rebecca did such a great job of making fabulous Father's day gifts. The items I want to share with you can easily be put together in a day or two.

These are Perler Beads. Michael's, a craft store, has mini sets for $1 right now. They come with 225 beads and a pegboard. On the front of the package is a pattern that you can use. I bought them for my boys to do a craft. The kits had more than enough left overs to make a coaster for their dad. If you aren't familiar with these they are beads that you fuse together by placing parchment paper (comes with the kit) over the beads then heat with a iron. Then you flip it over and remove the peg board and heat the other side. This fuses the beads together. For a coaster you simply back it with cork. The nice thing is that you don't have to write backwards because you fuse both sides. This picture is before I fused the beads.

A few years ago I did these paintings for my husband for Father's day. I wrote each boy's name on the back along with the date. On Father's day he got just the two canvas' with the hand prints.

A short time after that I finished the intended project. I purchased canvases in various sizes and depths. I wanted it all to be symmetrical. So the two smaller canvases over and under the hand prints are equal in size to the hand print canvases. I painted them all different colors and edged them in one of the other canvas colors. I wanted this to be very simple. Just the hands on the two canvases with the thought of perhaps adding hand prints over the years to the other canvases. A sort of progression.

I have gotten many complements on this over the years. It is a piece that I am probably most proud of. I certainly cherish it beyond measure. I think I have been trying to capture time with their hand prints. Just a moment of their childhood. Pictures can't really show how big or little they are at the time.

To my Father's, Grandfather's, my Husband and to all the wonderful Dads out there........

Happy Father's day!!!

Katrina

Father's Day Shrinky Dinks -3 ways

"Hand"made Father's Day Gifts for the Father's in your life!

I love Shrinky Dinks, don't you? We used to make them all the time as kids. I guess there was somthing bad in them. But now they are made sans the bad stuff (I hope). For my son's birthday party last month, we made Shrinky Dinks. Since then I've been renewed in my love for the dinks. My husband had dropped by to get me some Shrinky Dinks for the party. He came back with this PRINTABLE stuff! I was thrilled until I saw how much it cost. It was about $11 for one pack and he picked up three packs for me. Eeek. I returned two, but held onto one because I had to try it out. I found the regular Shrinky Dinks for the party.
Just a refresher for you incase you haven't shrunk anything since the 70's your childhood last year. Remember the edges come out sharp. Always curve your corners unless you intend your project to poke someone's eye out. Punch any holes into it BEFORE you bake them. If you forget, you will have to do something drastic like pull your drill out to make a hole after you have baked them. (Not like I'm talking from experience...there was only one little kid's project that missed getting a hole punch before baking.)

I can't wait to do this for Christmas...just wait and see...I punched all the way around some of them. (This one was not a printable one. With the regular kind, you want to do your design or words backwards so that the top is glossy when it is all baked and shrunk.)


I wanted some magnets. I printed family pictures on these so I'm not sharing the fronts. I wanted the first to look like lace so I cut the edges and punched it to look lacy. The second one I threaded ribbon through it to give it a little detail. I used some trusty E-6000 glue to stick my super strong magnets on.


Did you know you could use the hole punched holes to CROCHET AROUND your project? I LOVE!! I backed this with a little felt and some nice glue, and then glued a magnet on the back. Seriously I'm thinking about Christmas ornaments made like this!

Let your creative juices flow and you will probably fall back in love with the Dinks as I have!

Anjeanette

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Katrina here

My boys love this stuff. Can you believe I went to 2 different stores and they didn't know what "Shrinky Dinks" were?! We are talking a big chain craft store and they didn't know what I was talking about. They looked at me like I grew a second head. LOL Turns out they did have some but they already had patterns on them. They were labed as "Shrink Art." I did eventually find some plain Shrinky Dinks and another craft store.

When the girls suggested a 3 way make with Shrinky Dinks, I wasn't sure what I could come up with. Some times I never know until I start "playing with an idea." Around here we have been playing around with doing hand prints. For the kid's first year I inked their feet almost every month and stamped them on paper(I wrote their names and dates on the backs). After that first year I switched to doing their hand prints every few years.

I started by inking up a hand on each of my boys and transfering their hand print onto a sheet of Shrinky Dink. I then wrote their names and the year along side their hands. I cut around the hands leaving a gernerous border. Note: Do not try to cut out around the fingers. They will curl and stick together and look like your child broke a finger. ;) So these hands are my take 2. I used two 5x8 sheets for the hands.

Then I used one whole 5x8 sheet to write out the "Daddy...." saying and rounded only the top two corners.

For the base of my little desk plaque I used a fourth 5x8 sheet and had my oldest son write "Happy Father's Day" and his name. Then I helped my 5 year old write his name. He still wants hand over hand help when writing. I then rounded all 4 corners.

I shrank all my pieces and then glued them together. The two hands on the top of the saying and I used bamboo skewers to help hold up the upright plate while it dried and to add a bit of something extra.

I wish you could see this in person. No matter how many pictures I took of it, they just don't do it justice. I love that you can see their finger prints and all the lines in their palms. They are not actual size anymore but still you know they are their hand prints.

If I were able to find the printable stuff, I would totally make these with the kids pictures on them.


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Rebecca here with my version of a Father's Day gift using shrinky dink. For me, I didn't have to think up a way to use shrinky dink. I had already been inspired to use it, from Anjeanette's Son's Birthday Party where we used it! I had this gift in mind since then.


1. Trace kids hands onto a page of the shrinky dink paper. Cut out handprints. (As Katrina mentioned, cutting out the individual fingers will cause your fingers to curl and you can have problems with them sticking together. Thankfully mine opened back up when they were done baking.)

2. Decorate your handprints. I had colored pencils ready for my kids to color their handprints. They all decided to leave them just black and white. I did talk my kids into signing their names in the palm and then write their age on the thumb.
3. Punch a large hole in the bottom of the hand (holes shrink up tiny, and they can even disappear completely if they were too small)

4. Put your handprints on a cookie sheet and cook according to directions on your package of shrinky dinks. Make sure to leave space between them so they don't stick to each other, as they do curl up a lot during the baking process (and then they flatten back out).
5. A variation on this would be to turn the hands into a 3D version. When you take these out of the oven, you can still manipulate them for a very short time. These would be super cute made up into the sign language form for "I Love You". You would just bend the middle 2 fingers into the palm. They will stay hardened at this point. However, since I had 3 handprints going on this project, I needed them to lie flat with each other.
I really love how these turned out!

Lined up next to each other I found something out. 2 of my kids hand sizes are now the same size! My youngest is getting to be the same size as my middle! What a fun fact to find out! Another interest part of this project for us was that we have to do it again. My Son wants his own handprint for himself. I'm hoping this time I can talk them into coloring them. However, their Daddy will probably prefer this in the black and white that they decided on.

Here is my finished project; a key chain! Their Daddy has always loved having pictures of the kids on his key chain. So, I knew this was a project he might actually use (especially since the colors aren't crazy like I initially wanted them!).

Now my problem is keeping this project a secret from Dad! My kids are pretty good at keeping a secret...I'm not known for it. ;)

Rebecca

More Father's Day Ideas

Cups in a chain link fence to spell out a message to your Dad!
Picture messages for Dad!

Every year I make shirts for my kids to wear for Father's Day. Then, I take pictures of them and have them printed and framed for a gift for their Dad for Father's Day.

Rebecca

Happy Father's Day!!!

Perler Bead fun. Just a little sneak peak at what I am going to do with them.

Happy Father's day to my Dad, Father-in-Law, Grandpa, and last but NOT least my Husband!! To my Grandpa-in-Laws up in heaven, we miss you very much. I wouldn't trade a single one of them. I am lucky to have so many amazing men in my life.

From our family to yours.................Happy Father's Day!!!

Katrina

Lots of Father’s Day Ideas

I have some amazing Fathers in my life!  I am so thankful for all of them.  I love that we have a day to celebrate them.  I’ve compiled some of my favorite gifts we have made, for the Fathers in our lives.

 

Above is a canvas that is painted and then you Mod Podge on patterned paper tracings of your children’s hands! 

How easy is it to make signs for Dad?  Above are just paper cups stuck into a chain link fence, that writes out your sentiments for Dear Old Dad!

Printing out sections of the sentiment and then taking a picture of your kids holding the pages are so much fun!  I love this for children who are too young to write these things in a card!  You can either make a card out of this, or frame it for Dad to hang on the wall.

Every year my children wear a new Father’s Day shirt that I have made.  This shirt was my favorite.  It is embroidered onto the shirt.

There are a million gifts that you can have made up, using pictures of your children, or actual artwork that your children have made!  I love this Children’s Artwork Mug Gift.

How about some fun things with Shrinky Dink?  The following three gifts were made using Shrinky Dink!  Tutorials for all three can be found here.

A Tiny Crochetted Shrinky Dink Magnet.

A 3 Dimensional Desk Plaque.

Key chain of each kids’ handprint and signature.

 

Hope this inspires you for some great gifts for the Dads in your life!  Also check our left side bar for even more great gifts for Dad!

Rebecca

Magic Card for Father's Day-Gift Card and Book Box

Happy Father's Day, to my Father!

This is my gift to my Dad (Dad, if you're reading this, close your eyes please!) I am so lucky to have my Dad in my life, and thankful to have had him as my Dad. He is such a wonderful man, and I am so proud that he's my Dad! He has the biggest soft spot in his heart for children-all children! He lived his life, working hard, to provide for my family. I am so thankful for the life he was able to provide for our family. He is so talented, in so many ways. He is also a very brilliant man. If I need to know about anything, I just call him up-seriously, any subject! I have learned so much from my Father, and I'm a better person because of him. To say my Dad is a reader is the understatement of the year! His whole house is a library! Every year I always get him a gift card to a book store. I prefer gifts with thought, over gift cards. But for this man, this really is the perfect gift. It doesn't feel right to just give him a gift card. So, here is what I came up with to give the gift card more..."oomph"! I found an awesome box that looks like a book. It was just plain wood and so I painted it up to help it look more like a finished book. Then, I put a card in the box, with a hidden gift card in it!

Hidden Gift Card in the card.

Here is the card with just a drawing of a gift card and not the real card.
The magic in the card is as you pull on the card (on the right side), the actual gift card appears.
Here is the actual gift card with my fake drawing overlay.

How to make the Hidden/Magic picture:

1. Cut out your template. The piece with the cutout window will become the pocket part of the card and the rectangle will become your picture with the overlay.
2. Take your rectangle and make the overlay for it. You slide the rectangle into a sheet protector, pushing it against the fold. Then cut out around the card.
3. Glue the back side of the sheet protector to the backside of the rectangle.
4. Lift up the plastic and make a picture on your paper. I just glued on a die cut. This can be a really neat effect if you use a plain background and then color in lots of detail.

5. Lay the plastic overlay back down, over your picture. Trace the picture with a sharpie.
6. Fold the piece with the cutout window in thirds, with the window on the top. Then, cut the thumb hole out of the other 2 layers of paper.
7. Glue the top of the card to the middle piece, only gluing along the left side and along the bottom, keeping the thumb hole cut out on your right side.
8. Slide your picture with the overlay card into the 3-fold card pocket. Slip the plastic-covered picture over the middle flap. You've done this correctly if the middle flap of the 3-fold card pocket is sandwiched in between the plastic overlay and the picture.
This is how the card looks when it is all in place. You should have lost all the color and extra detail, and should only be left with the outline of your picture.
Here are your 2 finished parts.



Rebecca