Father's Day Craft

Father's Day is this coming Sunday. So Pumpkin and I decided to make a surprise for Daddy. the concept of a surprise was hard for Pumpkin to get. She understood the part about doing/giving something nice to somebody but she couldn't grasp that you do not tell about it in advance. So the first part of our surprise went like a lead balloon. She ran home and told her dad that "she went with Mommy to a store to buy a card for Daddy because Father's Day will be here soon...". Yep, just like that, without taking a breath.

That's all right, Pumpkin. Buying a card from a store is not a biggie. He guessed about it anyway.

I wanted to make with her something... Crafts for kids are so adorable, you want to keep them all for sentimental reasons. But it's so hard to keep them safe! All those bits and pieces usually fall out here and there, they are bulky and take a lot of our precious space. What do we do? Then flying paper planes around the house with my daughter(it just stopped raining today on the East Coast) gave me an excellent idea. Why don't we do ORIGAMI?

Origami is a Japanese art of folding paper into objects. Paper airplanes are origami.

I looked up a website that describes step by step how to do those objects. I love origami! They build children's imagination and develop spatial skills. Also, they teach them how to follow instructions which is a good skill to have under your belt. Grade school students will probably be able to complete the tasks on their own. Preschoolers will need moms' help.

Here is the link to that website:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/origami_for_kids.htm

There is an extensive list of things kids can do. We chose the ones that are stored flat for the reasons I mentioned. I hope you enjoy it. All you need is paper, scissors and maybe ruler. No mess at all(that is my favorite part)!

Here are the things Pumpkin made for her Daddy. Luckily, Daddy doesn't read this blog. ;)

We( I should say that) made this business card holder that can accommodate credit cards as well. If you use a good quality paper it is actually pretty cool.

Then we made a picture frame. You can also experiment with all kinds of paper and stickers and glitter... You got the idea.

This is how the frame looks like with Pumpkin's portrait of her Daddy and the things he likes.

And last but not least, this envelope that we decided to use as a package for the gifts. Like I already said, try different textures of paper, stickers, ribbons, etc.

Let me know how it went!