Father's Day Cards

Father's Day is tomorrow! Do you have the ties picked out, the cards ready, and dinner planned? Haha, me neither. We've never really done the whole tie thing for our Dad...at least not that I can remember. This year I found what I wanted to get my Dad...

http://www.bobcatstore.com/product.html?productId=1364

A remote control Bobcat Tractor with full functionality! My dad loves Bobcats...but this one was a little out of my price range. But I did find this at the Tractor Supply Co.:

http://www.amazon.com/Bobcat-Monster-Treads-Skid-Loader/dp/B004RCRTUQ  
(I couldn't find it on the Tractor Supply Co. website, but I did find it on Amazon).  

He got a kick out of it (I'm not patient with giving gifts and gave it to him a few days early), and now has his own toy to play cars with his grandsons. We're pretty low key around here, but it makes life fun!

 

Whitney sent us in her Father's Day Pinstrosity story and photo. Here's what she had to say:

 

"So, last year was my husband's first father's day and he was deployed. I sent him a home made card (from a pinterest idea) and it came out horrible. This year I totally went for the classic approach. Get a gift, pick up some steaks, make his favorite dessert, etc. I got home and realized I forgot a card. My husband doesn't appreciate a good store bought Hallmark anyway."

 

So she turned to Pinterest and found this simple and manly cute card:

 

The Original Pin

http://media-cache-ak2.pinimg.com/originals/b2/35/c5/b235c5e1fadd94148740f379533dd9f4.jpg

 

"So I saw the picture of that card, and it looked pretty simple. I don't have ANY type of card making stuff. I had some card stock scrapbook paper, a button from my sewing supplies, and archive glue. I put it all together how I wanted it. I'm surprised my lines were straight, but the glue? The glue kind of bent the card stock into a weird ripply pattern. This Is what I ended up with :("

 

The Pinstrosity

 

"Lesson learned. Leave out the card all together."

 

The wavy card may not be something you'd get at the store, but I'm sure most people will at least appreciate the thought and time that went into making a card. If you still need to whip together an awesome Father's Day card at home (I still want to get one made up for my husband to go with the balsa wood glider plane I got him...we really don't do serious gifts very well, lol), there are some things you can do to up your chances of success.

 

• Liquid glue can be rough. As Whitney found out with the archive glue, it can make the paper ripple and give it a school glue look. Glue sticks work wonderful for card making. You can also get the adhesive tape dispensers that work great, or even the glue dots (those are awesome and I've even seen pins to make your own glue dots).
• If you are using copy/printer weight paper, you will want to go sparingly on the glue and you will want to not add too many layers of paper embellishments or the card may come out floppy. If you have card stock or scrapbook paper, those work best.
• If you don't have decorative paper and you don't want to run to the store, you can find all sorts of great prints online that you can print on your computer paper and cut to the size and shape you want. You can fill a whole page with the embellishments you want, then just cut them out and attach them to the card.
• Before you glue your various embellishments on, lay them out just like you want them and take a picture with your phone/camera/computer/etc. so you can look back later and see what you did. If I don't take a picture of make a diagram, I inevitably forget just how I had things arranged and I end up moving things around. Sometimes it turns out better, sometimes I glue things on and then find I don't have room for the last piece because I glued the first pieces in the wrong place.
• There are tons of ideas out there for card making if you need design ideas. People are so dang creative and I love that they are willing to share their ideas with all of us.

Good luck with all your Father's Day celebrations! With siblings and cousins moving, my brother leaving, and summer vacations starting, we've had 3 weeks of company in and out of the house and it has been chaotic but wonderful. It all culminates tomorrow when we have all but one sibling here along with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and friends (my brother is leaving on a 2 year church mission and leaves this coming week, so we're getting together for a big lunch before he leaves). It's pure chaos with us all together, but I love it. I know my Dad is excited to have most of his kids together (one sibling will be missing) and even though we don't have a fancy gift for him, I think the "gift" of having his family together will be just perfect. I hope you all have a wonderful Father's Day tomorrow!