Make It At Home: Homemade Father's Day Present

The first mother's and father's days my daughter was on this earth we decided to try to stay focused on the "meaning" of the "holiday." To do this, we felt that we shouldn't buy any presents. Instead, we came up with this idea: make a gift that fits inside an 8x10 frame. (Disclosure: we're both really hard to buy for and we're very frugal....homemade gifts rock for us!)

This is an example of one of the gifts my daughter and I made for my husband. It's a hand, foot, and thumb tree. The theme of the writing was how he's given her all the important things for the tree to grow.

At the top of our stairs hangs the two, black 11x14 frames with the 8x10 mats showcasing the yearly gifts. So far, we've been able to keep up this tradition. I'm very excited about maintaining this tradition in hopes of beautiful memories in years to come. Let's just hope we can keep talking her into making these treasures when she's in high school and college! Okay, Okay...I'm getting ahead of myself!

We feel strongly that this type of gift is a great message to give our daughter. Of course, sometimes you just want to give or get a material item, but what feeds our souls the most are the homemade gifts. The art work, the snacks, the meals, the hugs, the time spent together. We hope she ends up treasuring the messages that these gifts send.

This year we'll be out-of-town for father's day, and we can't safely transport our gift. However, it will be another 8x10 masterpiece, at least to us!

What kind of homemade gifts do you like to make? What's your tradition?

1 comment:

C. Beth said...

I've just learned to crochet so I'm thinking about doing scarves for Christmas gifts! The hand and foot tree is cute and I love that you frame these gifts.

Thanks for visiting my blog! Yes, the purple face is fondant-covered cake. You could certainly do an all-white sheep cake though! A lot of sheep do have white faces and I think even white hooves. Probably a lot more than have purple faces and hooves. ;) You could get creative with materials for eyes, nose, and mouth.