Looking for Inexpensive Gift for Father's Day

a t-shirt w/ thier hand prints on it. a photo of the two of them. Or a coffeemug (from walgreens.com)with their photo on it

Make a homemade card and have the kids sign it with handprints. Either trace them or dip them in paint or pudding and make the print. No money but its something he will enjoy looking at forever.

My kids are 2 and 4 and last year we bought a stepping stone kit from Michaels. We put their handprints in the stone and then decorated it. Dad loved it so much we are doing it again this year. The kids love seeing how much their hands have grown. The kits are on sale right now also.

T.

I make a journal that i do each year. i have them answer or answer for them, their favorite food, favorite book, thing to do with daddy and things like that. it will be a treasure someday!
artwork is always good too!

HI, L. -

Photos of your kids. Sneak off to Portrait Innovations or Kiddie Kandids and get a great Father's Day portrait of the kids made. Another idea is to go to one of the pottery studios and make a tile with the kids' handprints on it. My hubby loved his.
Good luck!

A nice frame with a picture of the three of them. Kodak Gallery has many ideas for gifts with pictures on them. Magazine subscriptions are good as well and usually pretty inexpensive.

Make him breakfast, get his favorite movie or get his favorite coffee and a book. Plan a picnic lunch for the whole family with his favorite dessert.

Hmmmm, I could probably go on and on. :-)

The first Father's day after my daughter was born I made my husband a collage of pictures of him and her together. You could find pictures of him with both kiddos. I just used pictures I had taken throughout the year. I put all the pictures on cardstock I already had and bought a frame at big lots (for like $8). To this day it sits on his bedside table. Total it didn't cost more than $12.

You could buy a handprint kit. We did this for grandma at Christmas this year. The kit was $10 at Michael's and came with everything you needed (plaster, mold, glitter, stone). We imprinted their handprints. Once it is dry (do it ahead it takes a few days to dry) write something special on the back. Oh, we bought her a plate holder to display it (I think it was like $3 at Michael's as well).

You could do something simple and bake him a cake and have the kids help decorate it. The 9 month old will proably just eat the decorations but he'll ejnoy it! The kids could make him a card as well. Take a picture of them "helping" with the cake and frame it. I guess you would have to make the cake the night before and sneak out to get the picture developed. Write happy Father's day on the frame along with the year. That wouldn't be more than $10.

That's all I've got. I'm getting my hubby his dream laptop backpack and painting the floor in the garage where he works on his race car. Not too creative!!!

I don't know if you are a crafty person but what if you made him a special picture (and possibly even get a cheap frame for it). An idea would be to put both of your kids footprints on it and then the poem "Daddy's Footsteps" (just google it and you will find it).

Hey, I totally know how it is to not have very much extra money. For Mother's Day, we went to Michaels, where they had many crafts for kids to do for presents. We gave these things to the grandmothers. One of them was buying their $1 wooden frame. They had the supplies, but we could have totally done it at home. We painted the inner and outer edges of the frame (you can get acrylic paint for really cheap at Michaels), then cut out and glued a piece of scapbook paper (around .33 - .75 cents) to the front. You could most likely get 2 frames out of one piece of paper to give to a grandparent. To embelish it, we glued a ribbon that was made into a bow on there. You could add whatever you wanted to it. A pic of your husband and kids or just the kids would be great in there. I'm sure whatever you do, it will be nice.

Last year I made my husband a "Father's Day Box". Our kids are both under 3 years old so I used last year as the start of a yearly tradition that we will carry on as the kids get older. I went to the craft store and found a storage box that was decorated in a paisley print that was manly colors. I made my own little scrapbook tag to put on the top indicating that the box was a "Father's day box". We give it to him in the morning with his breakfast in bed. Inside we put homemade cards from the girls, a card from me and pictures of the girls. We have a video camera so I started a "daddy tape" and took some video of the girls. At that point my oldest could only say Hi Daddy and my youngest just smiled. This year for the video I am going to have my oldest say "Happy daddy's day" and we are going to walk around the house and I am going to have her talk about daddy's things in her 2.5 year old lingo. My youngest can now say dada into the camera. The box was around $10 and the other stuff was free :)

When our children were young I started a "Daddy Journal", all year I would jot down special moments or wonderful things I saw my husband do with our kids. Then a week or so before Father's day I would journal those moments into scrapbook pages with recent snapshots of him and the kids and their little drawings etc...some years we ended up with 20+ pages of great memories which are becoming one terrific book now. He knows that he'll be getting more scrapbook pages each year, but as the kids grow it becomes so much more special to see their input and creativity.

Finally, one of the best gifts we ever did was "100 reasons that you are a great Dad!" we came up with 100 different reasons that he was terrific, wrote them on paper hearts and hung them from the ceiling by string and thumbtacks. It was quite a sight to wake up to on Father's Day...he left them up there for a week before carefully saving them all in his nightstand drawer. I know it made an impact if it made it into his nightstand with his Bible....

Why not buy his favourite foods/things for father's day. Example would be, my hubby loves asparagus, olives, sundried tomatoes and good coffee. Just put some of these into your trolley with the shopping.

Each week, you are closer to having your special gift!

Jen

Hi L.. Have you thought of something homemade. All you need is blank sheets of paper and some watercolors or crayons. And have both your children be creative with the watercolors or crayons. It'll be a fun project for both yourself and your children. I always think something homemade comes from the heart and is more meaningful. My homemade Mother's Day card is displayed proudly in my office next to my children's picture. My husband and children decided to make their own mother's day card for me. And it's also something that the children can look back on when they get older.

We didn't have any money at Valentine's, so I took a few pieces of construction paper and made a homemade card from the baby. I traced his handprint, cut it out, and pasted it inside the card (construction paper folded in half). I wrote that it was a hug inside the card and all Daddy had to do was hug back. It's been on Daddy's nightstand for four months now and he loves it. I had all the materials at home, so it was free.

This might not be what you're looking for, but it would be a fun crafty day for the kids and an inexpensive option. Even if you had to buy materials, they'd be worth it in the long run.

Hope this helps,
Sarah

Pictures are great, and free or very inexpensive. You don't even have to buy a frame. You probably have things around the house even. Dress up the kids and yourself and take a picture or have a friend take a picture. You can get blown up to 5x7 or 8x10 for less than $1.00. You can make it the gift that keeps on giving and include a coupon that says 'picture of the month' and give him a new picture of the 3 of you for his wallet, his office, wherever each month.

Other idea is to plant a tree or plant in the yard. This would always be his special Father's Day plant. Depending on how small you buy the plant it can easily be less than $5.00.

Good luck! Remember, he loves the 3 of you for being his family and just spending the day with him and pampering him (all free) is what he'll enjoy the most. Get or make a really nice card reminding him all the reasons you love him for being a great dad.

pictures!!

Portrait Innovations always has $9.95 packages if you can restrain yourself by only picking one pose. It really is a fabulous deal!

If you or a friend has Photoshop, you can always make a special photo wallpaper so he can see it on his computer during the day.

L.,
My trick is finding Daddy's guilty pleasures. Like the beef jerky at the meat market. He loves it but it's too expensive to buy regularly so I am getting him a pound for father's day.
I also know that he enjoys watching the weather channel shows about tornadoes and hurricanes. He loves watching them but they repeat often so I went on amazon and found a documentary film. Both gifts were under $10.
What does your husband love, besides you and the kids of course!!
M.

One year my I helped my kids decorate a t-shirt with their handprints. You could also decorate an apron or something. Good luck and have fun with it.

the greatest gifts are giving from the heart and not store bought items. a pampered day for dad can be great on days that even aren't specifically fathers day! depending on what his needs are decide whether it's you taking the kids out and giving him a quiet day at home
or if it's more meaningful for him to be included, planning a day of picnic and playground...
some dads are just greatful to have a day off of work and working around the house, let him watch his favorite tv shows and feed him his favorite meals.
for my husband, he gets very touched when i'm completely present and explain how truly grateful I am to have him in my childrens lives, that it's so great to have a man who dedicates himself to our family by working long hard hours away from home...that he is a good positive role model for our kids and it is great to parent with him....it's just gotta be from the heart....I try to do this often and not just on 'father's day' enjoy!

Try www.sharemykidsart.com. We got the grandparents a calendar and they loved it!

Hi L.,
I own a store called Angel Wings and Other Fine Things and
have a few items that I carry for Fathers Day so it wouldn't be like shopping in a Fathers Day Isle. the store is located at 7121 E. 5th Ave Ste #1 Scottsdale, Az ###-###-####.Store hours 9-4 Wed through Sat and 12-4 Sundays. You can get a glimpse of some of the items we carry at www.Scottsdale5thave.org go to directory or store design Tan#4 and click on visual tour. We are between Camelback and Indian School off Scottsdale Rd on 5th ave on South side of the street. Hope to see you. P.

Does your husband drink coffee? One year for valentines I got a decorate travel mug from Starbucks. I printed black & white pictures of him with the kids. Cut them out and used red heart stickers to decorate it. Then I got him a $5 card as well.

This year the kids are getting them 2 Starwars action figures. He has been wanting a Ventris and he said when ever I see Darth Maul buy it. He in the kids play light saber wars in the house. Kids are Boy 5 and girl 3. They have so much fun and they enjoy buying daddy his action figures.

Noodle art. Go to the dollar store and pick up paper, glue, noodles and crayons. Have your two year old doodle and then dot the noodles with Elmer's Glue so that she can place them where ever she'd like on the paper. Write, "Happy Father's Day" where ever your 2 year old left room, and the date.
Then, write your husband a note of appreciation, noting the special little things he does for your children and compliment him on all of his wonderful daddy skills.

My little girl is going to be 4 in a couple of months, but for some reason I can't remember what her physical abilities were at 9 months... so of course, include your little boy if he's able. Your little girl will feel very proud of herself as she hands her self made gift to her Daddy. That'll mean the most to him. =)

You have so many great and creative suggestions. I've done the wooden picture frame before, letting them "paint" with the special wood markers. One year I let my oldest draw a picture, I scanned it into the computer and had www.winkflash.com turn it into a tshirt. My sister once took a baby's scribble drawing and had it turned into a very artsy looking tie at www.personalcreations.com If it's too late to order anything, you could always buy the iron on tshirt transfer and make it yourself on your computer at home. Just be sure if words are involved to "reverse the print". Good luck!!!

Ty PiggiesandPaws they make cute artwork out of your kids hand or footprints.There is probably an artist close by.

Hi L.,
My website has a page full of father's day ideas--mostly free and all fun. htp://www.winmarkcom.com/fathersday.htm.
Enjoy,
K. Winters, The Mother of Family Ideas

I would get a picture of the kids and put it in a frame and give it to him for his desk at work. You don't have to spend too much on the frame, even a hand made frame from Popsicle sticks or something to that effect would be really unique and you can put a message on the sticks about what a great father he is. That is a simple idea that the cost is minimal on.

D. P.