Father's Day Gift on a Budget

Hello All-

As many of you know, I was writing for a site called Kids in Cowtown.  For various reasons, the site closed down, but I wanted to repost some of my crafts, etc on here.  I would hate to lose some great ideas before I was able to share them.

Cheers!
Sharon

Father’s Day Gift on a Budget

Posted on June 14, 2011

With Father’s Day approaching, I started scanning my friends to see what they were doing for their significant others and I was amazed at how many don’t do anything. Their number one reason? Money. So, I decided to find an inexpensive gift option that anyone can make, regardless of your “craftability”.

The idea that Hannah and I decided to make was a handprint work of art. It is so easy and there is a lot of room to customize both the look and cost to fit your décor and budget.
The first step is to find paper to trace your hands on. Originally we were going to buy individual sheets of scrapbook paper for $.99 apiece, and then I found a pack of 50 sheets of patterned 8×8 paper for $6.00 on clearance. Since we do a lot of crafts, that was a better option for us.

Once you have selected paper, you need to trace each family member’s hand. This is one of those times where you need to explain to your significant other that they need to do as they are told and no asking questions. My husband played along quite nicely and we were able to get his hand traced without giving away the surprise. One suggestion on this step…trace everyone’s left hand. In my family, both my husband and Hannah are lefties, so there is some significance to this, but once I had to trace my own hand, I was happy to have my right hand free.

Next, cut out the hands and layer them by size, using a glue stick to stick them all together. Then, glue the stack of hands onto a larger piece of paper in your choice of color. We used bright paper for our hands, so we decided to go with plain white for the background. We already had the white paper, but if you needed to buy it, I saw a 25 pack of white cardstock at Wal-Mart for $4.00.

Next, you need to decide if you want any writing on your creation. We opted for a simple, “Father’s Day 2011”, but you could add everyone’s names or your family name…anything you want. Finally, frame it! In order to fit our hands, we needed at least an 8×8 opening. We ended up buying a 15×12-inch frame with an 8×10-inch opening. The frame included a mat and only cost $13.97 at Wal-Mart. They had many frame options at all different price points. If you have several children, you may want to only use their hands and then you can get away with a much smaller frame.

All in all, this project cost me less than $20 and took less than an hour to make. Add in homemade card with some of the leftover paper and maybe some button embellishments and you have a wonderful gift that didn’t break the bank.
Happy Father’s Day and Happy Crafting!