Father's Day (or any other day!) Gift Idea

With Mother's Day over with and Father's Day coming fast, I wanted to link a craft project that I did last year for Father's Day with a bunch of my nephews and nieces.  Everyone had so much fun with this - from 2 years old to 12 years old, they all seemed to really enjoy, and I know the fathers liked the gifts, as well!

What you're going to need are:

Wooden Plaque (I get mine at Michaels for around $1.50 each - they come in all shapes and sizes - some are hangable, some are not)

Tacky Glue / Hot Glue

Googley Eyes

Permanent Marker (optional)

Glue Dots (optional)

Rocks

The first thing that you gotta do is go out and find your rocks!  We were extremely lucky, because we were at a beach that had all types of rocks in the sand.  Tell them to find a rock for each member of your family.  This is probably the funnest part for the little ones!

Then, I like to place a glue dot on the back of each googley eye, so that the kids are able to place them exactly where they want, and if they mess up, you can just pull it off and re-position it.  With tacky glue, this would get really messy.  Tacky glue is necessary, though, if your rocks aren't smooth enough for the glue dots to work.

Glue each rock down to the wooden plaque however you'd like and let it sit for a few hours so that the glue dries completely.  While you're waiting, you can write the names of each family member behind the rocks (I didn't do this on the rock below and I wish I would have now, because I've forgotten who some of those rocks are) and "The ____ Family" on the plaque.

This is the plaque Jase made his Papa for Father's Day.

He had so much fun with it that he also made this one for me for my birthday.  I was pregnant at the time, hence the strange hole in my "head".  Once Kirsten was born, he added the baby rock beneath us to complete our family!