A Shirt & Tie {Father's Day Cards}

Sometimes I LOVE Pinterest, and sometimes it is really annoying. This week I found a fun thing for Father's Day that reminded me why it is such a great website! THESE adorable shirt and tie origami cards. Now, the pictures over at Fancy House Road are much better than mine, but her instructions took me a little while to get. I had to do a bit of trial and error because there weren't any pictures and I am a very visual person when it comes to folding paper. I need step by step instructions. So, I made my own visual instructions. That way I won't forget how to make them when I want to do it again in the future.

Here's how mine turned out! Aren't they just totally fun and awesome! I'm so glad I found this idea!

So you start by gathering your materials! You will need:

Paper

Scissors

2 Matching (or similar) Buttons

7/8" Wide Ribbon

Glue Gun

Crayons/Pens

Now in the original instructions they say to use cardstock. I tried this, but am not a skilled enough paper folder to make it work right. The paper just got to thick and chunky for me to fold. So, I used regular old computer paper.

First step is to decorate the inside (if you want to), or have your kids draw pictures for their dads/grandpas. I traced my little guys hand and he helped me write his name and "Happy Father's Day" on the insides. Then I let him go to town coloring it!

After you are done with whatever you want on the inside, then you can start folding it up.

 

1. Fold paper in half, hot dog style.

2. Open it back up!

3. Fold each of the sides in toward your center crease.

4. Take the top inner edge and fold it out so that you have a triangle hanging off the outer edge. (If you flip the paper over you will see that this becomes the triangle sleeves.)

5. Turn the paper over and flip it upside down so that the sleeves are at the bottom.

6. Take the top and fold it down about an inch. It should be toward you.

7. Flip the paper over again and fold the top corners in toward the center. They should meet at a point and create a "collar."

Close up of step 7!

8. Fold the bottom up to meet the collar (pretty much folding the paper in half).

And there you have it! A folded shirt. Now lets add the buttons and the tie!

Using your glue gun, put a teeny dot of glue on the back of each button and press onto the outside corner of the collar. Then cut a length of ribbon a little bit longer than your shirt length from the collar to the bottom of the paper. Cut one end of this length into a point like the bottom of a tie. Also cut a length of ribbon that is about 1 1/4 inch long to create the tied part of the tie at the top.

Get your glue gun and glue the short length of ribbon to the top of your long ribbon (centered). Then fold the edges over to the backside, slightly on a diagonal so that it is folded like a tie - glue down in the back. Then glue your tie to the top of the shirt, underneath the collar. Now you have a shirt with a tie!

Then you can write a nice note on the back or you can do what we did and flip the top down and write on the inside of the shirt! I like that they have to unfold the card to find the message, but the original tutorial just suggested to write your note on the back. Whatever you prefer works great!

I've never been very excited about homemade cards, but this one seriously rocks! Maybe I can find other fun cards like this one that I can make out of plain materials I always have on hand.

PS: This card takes about 10 minutes total (including writing the note) once you have all of your materials out. If you let your kids color on the paper first then it may take a little longer depending on how artistic they choose to be with their pictures! Happy Father's Day in advance to all of the wonderful men and fathers in the world!

Handprint Embroidery

I typically have a difficult time trying to find/think of gifts for my husband for Father's Day and his birthday. He has a birthday at the end of June so I always have double duty right in a row. This year I found an excellent gift for my 2-year old to give him (Tickle Monster Kit), but was unsure of what I was going to give him. I ended up settling on making him a simple, embroidered, picture of my son's hand print inside of his hand print.

 

I thought it would be something fun that he could keep at his office to remember his sweet little guy at home. With our new baby just weeks (or less) away from arrival I was thinking that I could also add her little hand once she is born.

I did not have a pattern, I just came up with what I wanted in my head, traced it onto white muslin, and started stitching. I printed my son's name and "daddy" out from the computer, along with "Father's Day 2012." I really love how it turned out and I hope that my husband thinks it is fun.

If you want to do one of these it is definitely not too late. It took me about 2 hours of total work to complete it. I suppose it might take a bit longer if you have more than one child, and you might have to overlap hands of kids inside of their dad's hand print, but using different colored threads would help distinguish which hand print belonged to which person. I am thinking it would be fun to maybe update it every year? Or maybe every 2 or 3 years? We'll see how much my husband likes it!

The other big gift I like to give my husband is his favorite breakfast - cinnamon rolls and I always let him choose what we eat for dinner and dessert. This year I am planning a delicious blueberry crisp using THIS recipe, except with blueberries in place of apples. I'm excited to see how it turns out. I'll definitely be posting it if it turns out delicious!

It's Been Too Long...

It has really been a long time since I have posted on this blog. I have lots of fun crafts and recipes that I have been trying/doing since February, but life has been too busy to make time to post them. We are getting ready to welcome another baby into our family.

 

This is a picture of her from our 17 week ultrasound (which was actually in February).

  

Here's me at 29 weeks. I am now 35 weeks. I should take another picture so I can remember this pregnancy.

It has been a good one. I did have morning sickness through the first trimester, which I wasn't expecting because I did not have it with my first. The second trimester was great and the third one has been pretty good too. We did have a funky couple of weeks when I hit 32 weeks though. I started having really regular contractions so I was told to rest a lot and slow down. I did for about 2 weeks while I was recovering from the cold that they thought was irritating my uterus and causing the contractions, but then I got bored, got my energy back, and decided I was going to get off my bum and stay active again. Although, I do rest much more than I did before and I have simplified meal preparations and other things so that I am on my feet a little less.

My big craving with this pregnancy has been fruit - which actually happened with my first pregnancy as well.

This is just some of the fruit that we have in our house right now. We also have 4 boxes of blueberries (small ones), a giant cantaloupe, a humongous watermelon, and apples in the fridge (plus more kiwis and avocados if you like to count them as a fruit). We eat this much fruit every week, sometimes more. I'm addicted and it doesn't help that everything I LOVE is in season - or at least it's all for sale for great prices! This baby girl is going to be a fruit addict for sure - which is exactly how my son is so I suppose that's a good thing!

I will have posts about actual crafting coming your way soon. I have a fun Father's Day gift that I will be finishing up tomorrow and I am excited to "show it off." I think my husband will really like it!