Cheap (I mean, Inexpensive) Father's Day Gift

So, I thought Father's Day would be a good excuse to 1) flex some creative muscles and make something, and 2) start blogging for real! Holidays like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, and birthdays are, to me, the best excuse to go to your studio and make stuff. Or to your kitchen table that's been taken over by craft supplies if your anything like me.

And if you are anything like me, you wait until the last minute to do things and your wallet is home to moths instead of moola, so you need something fast and cheap! Wait, I got yelled at the other day by a furniture salesman for using the word "cheap." His couches aren't cheap, they're inexpensive!!!!

So, anyway, this is what my kids and I decided to make for Dad this year, now that he has his own office and a desk. It's not an original idea - I first saw something like it on the HowDoesShe ladies' blog. (Go to www.howdoesshe.com and check it out!) This is just my cheaper (I mean, more inexpensive) version.

First, I used my computer's word processing program and chose a font that I liked. I actually liked the default Times New Roman for this project - a first! In hindsight, however, I should have stayed away from letters with the little "tails."  They were a pain to cut out neatly.  Anyhoo, I typed a bold capital letter D, then I blew it up as much as I could and still have the whole letter fit on a piece of 8.5x11 paper (ended up being about 750 pt). Then I printed out two Ds, erased the D, and typed a bold capital A and printed it.

I took my three letters and taped them on a piece of foam core.

 Then, using the sharpest blade on my exacto knife I (carefully!) cut them out.

 Seriously, be careful! My husband actually asks me not to use my exactos when he's not home because I am one of the least careful people alive when it comes to using sharp objects. Just two weeks ago I stabbed my foot with my knife while cutting a very thin piece of plywood and bled all over the place. Luckily, I didn't ruin the beautiful papers I was using for the same project!

Once the letters were cut out, they looked pretty rough. Tip - the less of a sawing motion you use while cutting, the cleaner your edges will be. But as you can see by the picture, I had to saw through my foam core.

I used a piece of very fine grit sandpaper and smoothed out the edges of my letters. It worked beautifully. A nail file probably would have worked, too. The edges weren't perfectly smooth, but they were fine for my purposes.

Since I'm a part-time photographer, I already knew in my head what I wanted the resulting pics to look like. I knew I wanted black and white, so I dressed the kids in white and pulled out my black backdrop. I handed each kid a letter, then snapped happily away. Luckily I got a couple good ones of our 8-month-old before his slobber and two little teeth ruined his D!

I picked the 3 poses I liked, converted them to black and white and edited them in Photoshop Elements, then sent them off to my photo website (http://jrmark.smugmug.com). I ordered my 5x7s and had them in about 3 days. I popped them in the frame I picked up on sale at Michael's, and voila! A Father's Day gift I know my husband will be proud to show off at work! And it was all easy and super cheap - dang it! I mean inexpensive!

Yes, I could of used wooden letters that you can get at craft stores. Michael's even has them already painted white. I considered that, but we live in a tiny house in which I already don't have enough room to store my stuff. The foam core cost me next to nothing, so when the letters got ruined immediately after the photo shoot, it was no big deal. Plus, there was no incriminating evidence left behind for my hubby to find when he got home from work to give him any clue what we were up to!

I think we may do a version of this every year for Father's Day now. It will be neat to see how the kids grow year after year. I know he's gonna love it!  Hope you do, too!