Christine French Clark was sifting through her father’s belongings shortly after he passed away when she stumbled upon an aged and unmarked shoe box. Inside the box, Clark found every handmade gift she’d ever made for her father. There was the plastic lanyard she made for him at a camp and the coaster she fashioned from a slice of wood. There were dozens of cards, now yellowed, and a macaroni-covered box she’d made for his loose change.
“I didn’t really understand until then how much those handmade gifts meant to him,” said Clark, the editor in chief for Highlights for Children, now in its 63rd year.
This Father’s Day, as families pinch pennies to make ends meet in a slumping economy, more families are opting to skip the mall and make gifts at home, instead, Clark said. Father’s Day is June 21.
“In today’s culture, lots of parents are worried about consumerism,” she said.
“They want to take the focus off money and put it much more squarely on the recipient, where it belongs.”
Aside from their sentimental value, handmade gifts also help children develop motor skills, exercise their imaginations and express their individuality and creativity, Clark said.
Crafting gifts also helps boost a child’s self-esteem, said Amanda Formaro, chief editor of FamilyCorner.com Magazine Inc.
“As parents, I think we appreciate gifts so much more because our kids put their heart into it,” she said.
“It gives them such gratification to see mom or dad’s face light up. It gives them a sense of accomplishment ... to make someone they love smile.”
Formaro said she’s noticed a spike this year in the number of searches on her Web site for homemade Father’s Day gift ideas.
“People just don’t have that kind of money to spare this year,” she said. “Crafting and frugality definitely go hand in hand.”
To find cheap materials for a Father’s Day gift, search your house, Clark said.
Empty laundry detergent boxes, discarded cereal boxes and scraps of construction paper are the foundation for a great keepsake, she said.
“Collect a box of stuff, set it out on a picnic table and let your children go to town,” she said.
+++
A Trophy For Dad
Materials
• Short cardboard tube
• Aluminum foil
• Paper bowl
• Chenille sticks
• Paper
• Small box
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Glue
Directions
Cut the cardboard tube in half.
Glue aluminum foil around a paper bowl and one of the cardboard tube halves.
Cover two chenille sticks with foil.
Punch two holes opposite each other on the paper bowl.
Punch two more holes opposite each other on the tube.
With the holes aligned, glue the bowl to the top of the tube.
To make handles, insert one chenille stick in the holes on each side.
Glue paper around a small box and decorate it.
Glue the tube to the box.
SOURCE: Highlights for Children
+++
Fish Note Card
Materials
• Colored paper
• Button
• Twist tie
• Yarn
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Glue
Directions
Fold colored paper in half.
Draw a fish with the top along the fold.
Cut out the fish.
Glue on a button eye and punched paper circles for scales.
Write a message inside the card.
Punch a hole for the fish’s mouth.
Form a hook with the twist tie and tie yarn around it.
Stick the hook in the fish’s mouth.
To make an envelope, fold another sheet of paper in half and decorate it with cut paper.
Glue the bottom and one side closed. Glue the yarn to the envelope and slide the fish inside.
SOURCE: Highlights for Children
+++
Gift Box
Materials
• Paper
• Shoe box with lid
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Glue
Directions
Separately cover a shoe box and lid with paper.
Cut out shapes from various colors of paper.
Cut out letters if you wish to put a name on the box.
Use a hole punch to make small circles.
Arrange and glue the shapes on the lid of the box to form a “mosaic” design.
Give the box to your dad so he can fill it with CDs or cassettes, golf balls and tees or fishing lures.
