How To: Gift's for Dad

One of the things that the Hubby wanted for Father's Day, which is his very first Father's Day by the way, was a shadow box created of his dad's army medals. He wasn't very close to his dad when he was growing up and he passed away when Daniel was just 16 from cancer. Since Hubby doesn't request things very often for presents, I knew I needed to create this for him. And you know me, I couldn't resist blogging about it since I think it's a great gift for any man in your life and can go with any hobby, interest or otherwise cool thing they like. So here you go...

Start with a shadow box, push pins (the kinds you sew with) and any favorite set of items they like. In this case, it was a set of medals and pictures from his dad's time in the service (he was a Chief Master Sergeant in the Army).

Now I was extra excited when I found the shadow box a while back because it was 50% off at our local Hobby Lobby store so I scored it for only $24.99 for an extra large one. LOVE that store!

Other options other than medals and military items could be:
Avid Reader: pages and a copy of their favorite books with a picture of them reading (add reading glasses, reading light or anything else they use frequently...well copies of them...don't actually steal what they use everyday)

Fisherman: lures, fishing line and pictures of them fishing. Antique ones are especially cool to add.

Golfer: tee's, score cards, golf balls, etc

Runner: track shoes, pictures of them running track, favorite "lucky socks", etc

Sports fan: tickets, picture at the game, patches or stickers with team's info, signed copies of anything they may have collected over the years

Pastor: crosses, sermon notes, pictures of them preaching, mini bible, favorite scripture quote

You get the picture...there are all kinds of options depending on what your man or boys love to do.

Next step, lay out everything on the board to make sure it all fits. Words of wisdom...be sure that the board is facing in the right direction so that the hanger on the back side is not upside down. I'm not saying I did this and realized it after the fact when it was all done or anything. Just saying it could happen.

After you have it all laid out, start pinning. Using the push pins found in any sewing section, simiply stick them in to the board. If they are too long, just put them in at an angle. For the medals, I pinned them underneath the first layer so you couldn't see the pins. For the pictures and paper, I used colors that matched so they blended in.

When it's all pinned in and you know it's not going to fall off when it sits upright put it back in the box and VIOLA! You have a pretty shadow box.

Here's a picture of where we ended up hanging it - in the Man Room Guest Room Anna's Office multi-purpose room.

And here's another close up of the box and it's contents:

And just for the record, this isn't all that Daniel got for Father's Day. He also got this funky artistic piece that is a frog with a baby frog riding on it's back - just like little Charlie who loves to ride on his daddy in the Bjorn. (and yes, Daniel likes funky things like this so it wasn't an "aww that's cute" but secretly saying "what the heck?")

You can't see it well but on the leg there's a blue/red baby frog holding on

Looks kind've cute and funky crawling up the wall

And he also got this blender AKA Captain Ninja a few weeks ago when ours died. Yep, I'm the wife that gave her husband a kitchen appliance for a present. He makes gross veggie/protein shakes every day to counter-act his sweet tooth after his workouts. It's the one you see on infomercials that can cut through anything (but you can get it at your local home store).



And here he is, enjoying a movie and relaxing in the quiet solace of home...in other words, Charlie was napping.

And not to worry, he wasn't painting his fingernails with the polish behind him...that was me last night

Happy Father's Day honey! You're a great dad and husband!

So have you ever created anything fun for the man in your life for Father's Day? What is the worst thing you ever made? Or got if you're a dad? Any other cute ideas you've seen?