How to Start a Father's Day Crafts Tradition

Plenty of families like to do crafts together. Craft activities are wonderful ways to spend some quality time bonding with each other, while producing useful and decorative objects everyone can enjoy. Whether your family enjoys woodworking, needlepoint, ceramics or scrapbooking, you can incorporate your preferred crafts into a cherished Father's Day tradition.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Craft supplies
• Plastic container with snap-top lid

1. Decide whether the Father's Day crafts tradition you want to start will be something the whole family works on with Dad on Father's Day, or whether it will be something you all make in advance and give to him as a present.
2. Determine whether the whole family will be working on one craft project together, or whether each family member will work on his own individual craft.
3. Buy the appropriate craft supplies about 1 week in advance of Father's Day. If the family is going to be making a present for Dad beforehand, you should buy supplies 2 weeks in advance.
4. Help small children with their craft projects if the family is working on individual things.
5. Set aside some time to work on the crafts together. If you're making crafts in advance, the time should be after school, before dinner or any other time when Dad isn't home. If you'll be making crafts with Dad on Father's Day, give yourselves the whole afternoon to complete your projects.
6. Buy a big plastic container with a snap-top lid to store crafts from previous Father's Days. This will keep the crafts safe and provide one central location where everyone can go to look at them and reminisce.

Tips & Warnings

• If your family hasn't done craft work together before, choose an easy project in which everyone can participate. Paint-by-numbers, scrapbooks and bead work are all crafts that are friendly for beginners.
• If you want to try a more advanced project or are rusty with something you haven't done in a while, pick up an instruction book on the subject.
• As part of the tradition, start displaying the current year's crafts on a bookshelf or mantle for a few months after Father's Day.
• Make sure you start the habit of labeling each craft with the name of the person who made it.
• If your family's crafts involve the use of hot or sharp objects, be sure to supervise any small children who will be participating in the crafting activities. Nothing puts a damper on Father's Day like a trip to the emergency room for stitches.