Handmade Fathers Day Ideas

Here's a cute little idea for Fathers Day- perfect for the dad who has everything and also perfect if you don't have much time or money left! I like to give gifts that are giving something of yourself (hence why I love handmade!) rather than just material worth. 

The Gift of a carwash!

I made these little carwashing sets out of $2 store items for the school Fathers Day stall. There's a squeegee, a microfibre mitt (it cost the same as the plain old carwash sponges and I thought it was funkier), a bucket and 2 little coupons for Dad to redeem for his car washes. This really was a last minute effort so I spent $2.50 on a sandcastle bucket and just removed the attached spade- if you were more organised you could purchase a full size bucket for $1 from Bunnings or Big W. I think this one looks cute though. 

Here's the link to the coupons I made up. For some reason Google Docs removed the "one free car wash" bit but you can add that with WordArt in Microsoft Word. Or make up your own coupons. And while you're at it, you can make a "Happy Fathers Day" sign for the front of the bucket. Then wrap in clear cellophane and add curling ribbon and a tag. 

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B24Q2s4-_TpHNGQ0ZTQ5ZmMtYzQ0Ni00YzgyLWI3N2ItNmJmYzk5Y2ZiYTY2&hl=en_US

And the other cute idea.... better suited to wrapping a box of chocolates or a pair of socks...

Personalised wrapping paper

You'll need to have a photo handy that you want to use. Then go to http://www.art.kwikkopy.com.au/ upload your photo and it will show up in the box in the middle.

You can use the buttons further to the right to choose your colour combos but you don't need to press that little green arrow (that's to register for a free calendar). When you are happy with how it looks, take a screen cap. (To do that, press the "ctrl" and "prnt scrn" buttons on your keyboard at the same time. Then open the Paint program, choose "edit" and select "paste" and your image will show up in Paint). Use the cutter tool to crop the image down to just a square of images. Keep the edges pretty closely cropped. Save the images as something. I named mine PopArt1. Because I'm creative like that, haha.

Ok, then open a Word document, change the paper size to A3 (i also changed my margins to narrow) and then add the pic by going "insert-picture-popart1" and repeat until the whole page is filled. Then print off. You can trim down the edges if you like but they'll be kind of hidden anyway. You can also use 2 sheets together if your present is a little larger.

Here's what mine looked like (still in Word). And below is the final product in use.

Lastly, this idea isn't my own and I haven't made one because the Mister doesn't work in an office so he'd have no use for it but I think it's brilliant:

Decorated notepads ala Martha Stewart. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/272680/fathers-day-notepad

They're really sweet but still practical- each individual piece of notepaper wouldn't really show any signs of having been drawn on. But the cute little drawings would sit on your desk each day and make you smile.


I hope these have given you some inspiration. Please share your ideas below and let me know if you need more detailed instructions.

Laura xx