Father’s Day will be here before you know it, so I’m sharing a really easy gift idea you can do with your kids! This Dad photo collage is so simple and special, it’s faster than making breakfast in bed (and it’ll last longer too!).
Last year on Mother’s Day, my family went for breakfast with my mother-in-law. Since my husband was already planning on cooking me breakfast on Mother’s Day, he decided to surprise me with breakfast on the Saturday morning before instead.
Awesome, I love Mother’s Day Eve breakfast! I told him. This is a great tradition you’ve started! He looked a little taken aback, and when I continued talking about our new Mother’s Day Eve tradition, he said he would like the same for Father’s Day Eve. That backfired.
Anyways, as a mom of two toddlers and a preschooler, the duty of Father’s Day gifts for my husband falls to me (on top of my own dad and father-in-law lol). But I try to make his gift about, and involving, the kids as much as possible.
I did this Dad photo collage for my husband’s first Father’s Day with all three of our little munchkins, and he loved it! I put it in a slim, 3 photo frame which he put on his desk at work.
As photo projects go, this one is a cinch! There are so many ways you can achieve it, but I’ll go through how I did it and then give you a few other ideas.
1. For the letters, I drew them out on a white sheet of paper in an outline style (I drew the edges and left the inside of the letter white). Then I had my oldest color in the letters, which I thought added a colorful, personal and cute touch. (You may notice I cheated and just made one letter D and used it twice, and with 3 little ones including a 3 month old I thought that was ok 😉 )
2. Instead of trying to get all three kiddos in the same photo holding their letters up and making nice faces (impossible) I took several individual photos, hoping for a decent one from each. Success!
3. I chose a good one of each kid, did some basic editing and sent them off to the photo lab for 4×6 prints at about $0.20 each.
4. I put them in my 3 photo frame (I think it cost about $10), and voila!
I love this photo project because it’s easy, affordable, and special. My husband loved it too, and now that his big day is approaching he has hinted at getting updated photos for his frame. This could be the beginning of a Father’s Day tradition, and I don’t mind since it’s so simple. And it would be really cool for him to look back on all the years of DAD photos once the kids are grown up.
Here’s some ideas for alternate ways you could do it (which I may even try out next time)
1. The letters can be anything you want
- for simplicity, print large letters off your computer
- or get your kids to make the letters, putting their own personal stamp on them
- get big wood letters from a craft store (you could use them year after year!)
2. You don’t have to have 3 kids to do this
- for one child, take 3 different pictures (2 Ds and 1 A)
- for two kids, do 2 individual pictures, and one picture with them holding a letter together
- for 4 or more kids, group the kids, or add letters (Daddy), or even use words instead of letters (We Love You Dad)
3. Lose the frame
- get the collage printed on a photo mug
- print the pictures on a custom cell phone case
- check your Photo lab for more ideas — the options for presenting the collage as a gift are almost endless!
I think this is going to be a Father’s Day gift tradition I will enjoy doing for the next 18? years. Father’s Day Eve breakfast? Not so much, lol.
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