These gifts are perfect for your kids to give their Dad, Grandpa or any awesome men in their lives! I’m using this list at home for my boys to choose from.

1 – Craft a book for Dad about all the reasons they love him! You can make an adorable book out of paper lunch bags. You need 3 paper lunch bags (if you’d like a larger book, experiment with adding more bags), some string and a hole punch OR a stapler, stickers or other decorations and some extra paper (any color or design would be fine).

Flip the bags every other way and fold them in half together. Then either staple or hole punch along the spine. If you use a hole punch – you tie the book together with string. A great idea to hide the staples is to use washi tape. A pretty awesome feature of this  book is that you’ll have little pockets to tuck things in !

One thing you could do is use the extra paper to make pull out notes – use washi tape for pull tabs. They can decorate it anyway they would like but some great ideas include photos or drawings that show things they like to do with Dad. It could also include one of those cute “All About Dad” interviews! Some great questions are:

-What does Dad always say?

-What does Dad do at work?

-What does Dad do for fun?

-How old is your Dad? (this is especially funny when they are younger)

2. Make a sharpie mug! If their Dad is anything like my husband – he drinks a lot of coffee. This is a fairly easy craft and it will make him smile every time he sees it. You need some oil-based Sharpies which you can find here on Amazon but should be available in the craft supply aisle as well. You will also need a ceramic mug…it’s time to visit the Dollar Tree!

Have the kiddos draw or write on the mug, let it dry for 48 hrs and then bake it in the oven @ 250 degrees for 2 hrs. Start with a cold oven and let the mug cool before you remove it. This should set the sharpie and make it hand wash safe. I used the general directions from Feeling Nifty and bonus, she has a lot of great design ideas to get started and more detailed instructions to make sure that his mug turns out great!

3. Make a Scrabble tile key chain! Use E6000 glue (available here on Amazon or in the craft store) to attach the tiles that spell Dad, Papa or another short name (Mike, Joe, Tim, Tom, Ben, etc…) together vertically and put an eye screw in the top and attach to a keyring.

You could even add the kids’ pictures to the back or have them write their names with a Sharpie. If you do this, I recommend sealing the keychain with something that will make it at least water resistant like acrylic spray sealer.

4. Create a comic strip featuring Dad! There are tons of printable layouts on the web and I tried my hand at making something fun on Google Docs – it’s available for free here! Imagine Dad as a super hero or just make a visual reminder of an important time they have had together. If you use standard sized printing paper – you can frame it! For even better results, use card stock – it will hold up better with markers or other mediums. Have them sign their art! 

D – Dependable

A – Awesome

D – Dynamic

6. Make a gift that ROCKS! I have seen two adorable ideas that really stand out. One is rock art or arranging and you can find it here from Doodle and Stitch. The other is painting the rock to look like Dad and you can find a really great example from AlphaMom. Rock crafts are easy, accessible, and fun! Two other decorative ideas are a short quotation/meaningful word or a design showing a hobby that Dad likes. 

7. The Ultimate Classic – hand print and footprint gifts! Paint your kids’ hands, stamp them on paper (or canvas or cardboard or wood) and use a cute saying like “Hands down, you’re the best Dad ever”! I found quite a few blogs offering printables to get you started if you are not a fan of handwriting. 

Or paint a foot, steal a shoe and title it “Walking in Daddy’s Footsteps”! Frame it! I don’t think these gifts ever lose their sentimental value because those babies grow up and you wonder how their hands could have ever been that small.

Here’s the plus part – you can combine several of the above ideas!

For example:

• write the acrostic poem over the hand prints
• use the scrabble tiles as your first letters for embellishment on the acrostic poem
•  put your poem on the back of the tiles for the key chain 
• use the poem for the book or a part of it
• draw the comic on the mug
• write the poem on the mug 
• make your own frame or add some pizzazz to a store bought one

…there are so many opportunities to customize and expand on these ideas!

PLUS – count on my oldest to think of something else! We used WeVideo to make a special project for his dad! It was fun AND free!

Marj

p.s. comment below and tell us what you did or what you are planning for next year!