Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Quick & Easy Father's Day Gift

In the U.S., Father's Day is always the third Sunday in June.  As I write this, it's Wednesday night, so you still have a couple days before Sunday if you haven't already bought or made something for one or more of those special dads you may have in your life.  (And dads of multiples have really earned their stripes!  I know my husband was changing diapers, feeding, and caring for the twins for an entire weekend by the time they were 3 months old.)  Maybe try making bag-a-lopes!  Yep, bag-a-lopes, envelopes turned into gift bags.  My twin boys and I whipped these up this afternoon.  Earlier in the day (after a dentist appointment, ironically), we bought candy that would both fit in the bags and that we thought Daddy would like.  (At Target, where, for the first time, I allowed them to walk next to me throughout the store, rather than riding in the double cart...but that's another story.)


This craft involves things that you may already have on hand at home:

  • Envelopes, any size or color
  • Stamps and ink pads (or crayons, markers, etc. for your kids to draw on the envelope if you don't have stamps.)
  • Scissors
  • Glue dots, tape, or any other kind of adhesive  
That's it!  You can also add a handle, ribbon, or gift tag if you like.  I got the idea from my cousin who is a Stampin' Up demonstrator.  It looked like something the boys could do, or at least help with, I had everything on hand, and besides, it was fun for the boys to say "bag-a-lope" many times over. And if a 4-year-old can make these (with help!), you can too!


Here's a link to my cousin's video in which she shows step-by-step how to make these envelope-gift bags:  Ink It Up with Jessica TV Episode #30: Bag-a-lopes   


Once you make these, you can fill them with anything you want, candy, gift cards, rolled up pictures that your children draw, Chapstick and travel sized toiletries if he's on the road for work a lot, or anything else you can think of.  We added a greeting card in which I wrote a message and the boys signed their names and drew pictures.  These, along with gifts they made in preschool, are all currently hiding in the laundry room cupboard...    

Happy Father's Day!