2 Clever Blog

Father's Day Card For My Nursery Kiddos

Pink ::

You know I work in my church's nursery on Sundays with kids 18 months to 3 years old. Or at least I think I mentioned that to you before. If not, I do.

Is there anything else that is more entertaining and exhausting? I don't think so.

When we first moved to Nashville back in 2000, Mr. Think and I did the same thing there and I needed something for the little ones to do for their daddies on Father's Day. So I made up this. I'm so glad I remembered it today so I can use it again this Sunday. Yay!

Anyone else who is need of a cheap, easy, sorta cute card for a bunch of pre-preschoolers – here you go!

Print out this sheet for the inside. I put two on a page so after you print it out just cut the paper in half.

Have the kids color the tie. (Or if they are like the ones in my Nursery, they will scribble wildly all over while eating a crayon turning their teeth green)

When they are done cut a line from the top of the paper to the top of the tie and fold it down like a dress shirt collar. (mine is poking up in the photo below but you get the idea)

Put it in the middle of a piece of construction paper and fold the color paper around it. Fold where the paper meets down like lapels. You could use scrapbook paper if you wanted to up its "cute factor" but I think the construction paper is more "retro manly" and almost feels like fabric if you buy the super cheap kind.

Glue on a button. (If you kids are small use smaller buttons to prevent worries about choking. This ones a little big....)

Done!

Happy Father's Day to your Mr. Pink!  :: Think

Flashy Father's Day

Photo from Mister Pink's Breakfast 2 years ago.  Do you love my German chocolate sucker?

Think ::

Ok so this is what I love about you and I.  We love tradition and always do the same type of thing but in two totally different directions that are so us.

This year we will be making our 8th Funky Father's day tie.  Every year I go to my local thrift shop and find an old funky tie to spruce up. 

The girls and I gather all of our doo dads from different drawers, bottles of glue and puffy paint.  On the tie above we made lots of shrinky dink drawings and then they magically shrunk into little works of art all over his sparkly tie. I think on the bottom they sewed one of the stretchy sea animals.

In 2204 I made the tie above and had put photos of the two little girls (I was pregnant with number 3). Mister Pink was not so happy with the homemade tie as it did look a little more clownish than normal.  He said he like the classic tie gone wild more than starting from scratch.  I did agree.

But starting with a blank canvas made it easy to stick it in my embroidery machine and work it's magic.
He is always such a sport to wear his tie to church every year.  Especially the year the girls tied jingle bells all along the bottom.

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This year had shrinky dinks along with mini charms with the girls faces on it along with buttons, bells, ribbons and such. 

I am also throwing in this post what we gave the dad's at church in 2004.  (you should remember you wrote the poem for me even though you had already moved to Texas)  Sorry about the horrible flash reflection photo (this was pre my awesome camera days)
We got plastic pocket protectors, Bic pen and a sugar daddy sucker with a sticker with your poem.

Hip, Hip Hooray
Today is Father's Day!
For all the things you do for us
without complaining, without a fuss
As our ward we would like to say have a
"Sugar Daddy" Day.
Father's Day 2004

Yesterday was the last day of school - Finally! - so I will gather my school endings together in a post soon.  I am off to clean my house for a visit from Grammy and Papa Pink this week!

See ya friend! (we are so lucky our littles have such super dads!)

Pink ::

My Favorite Father's Day Tradition

Pink ::

Do you remember this one? I think we were both still in Nashville when I started this. It was for Little Think's first Father's Day and I have done it every year.

It is the ONE thing Mr. Think wants.

It is his "Badge of Honor".

I bought a pink tie. I found a picture of Little Think on my computer, shrunk it down so her face was about an inch across and converted it to black & white and then made it sepia to warm it up. (group shots would work great for more than one child) Then I then printed it on this stuff:

OptiJet Artist Cotton Canvas in Matte Finish

It is canvas that can go through my inkjet printer. Found it online at Amazon today but I have seen it around other places. Kinda pricey but it is what I started with so I have to go with it. I cut it out in a circle. Then I poked holes around the outside about an 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch apart with my needle tool. I used embroidery thread in a blanket stitch to attach the photo to the tie.

I always just google "blanket stitch" to remember how to do it. There are lots of tutorials for it and I usually find one I can comprehend. I would love to have a sewing machine that I trusted to do a nice finished edge around it but then again I like the quirkiness of my stitches and how they are slightly different each year. And in a few years I will let Little Think sew it on herself. I put the first photo on the bottom of the tie and then add a photo going up every year. We tell Mr. Think he had earned his "Daddy Badge" for the year. (He is an Eagle Scout so he has great respect for badges)

My favorite part is when he wears it to church that day and I can see people wondering what in the world is on his tie. Two years ago I was out of town on Father's Day and he wore it out in the rain for an extended period of time and it got a little rain splashed on some of the photos. So it is a little fragile.  It's a good thing it only gets worn one day a year.

Another option instead of sewing would be to have 1 inch button pins made of the photo and pin them to the tie. How totally cute would it look when the tie was all filled up with color photo button pins of things they did together that year. If you google button pins several companies come up. (Zazzle.com is one that has no minimums and quick turn around but I have never used them so I can't vouch for their quality or service. They have totally cool square buttons too!)

I love having something sentimental to give every year. And that fact that he looks forward to it and is proud to wear it shows what a truly great father he is.

Little Think and I need to get going on selecting a photo for this year! :: Think

Top Pop

Pink :: I think I'm a one-trick-pony.

I know this is pretty similar to the Valentines Crush I did before, but when I saw the the Dad's Root Beer at my Dollar Store I thought it was an easy thing to whip up and share with you. You can't see it too well in my photo, but the front of the bottle says "Big Daddy Size" which is what really caught my eye. (It's a cute 1 liter bottle. Not too big, not too small. just right....)

To make your own, just click on the image below and print it out on a color printer on cardstock. I used a 2" scalloped circle punch on the yellow to make the badge's back. Then I cut out the "top pop" circle and glued in on top. The striped "ribbon" I cut out and cut into two pieces on an angle to the length I liked. Then "glue dotted" it to the front of the bottle. Really you could use any favorite soda pop but the Dad's just makes it for me. On my printer, the badge matches the Dad's bottle colors, but you may have to play with the colors on your printer if you want it to match exactly.

Remember when they handed out chilled Dad's Root Beer in brown bottles on Father's Day at Church in Nashville? So funny to see all the men sipping some soda.

(And yes, on the file to download it says "You're" instead of "Your" in the middle of the badge. I was too lazy to retake the photo. Mr. Think is very used to my misspellings so he won't mind.)

I'll post my favorite Father's Day Tradition tomorrow :: Think