Father's Day Card

Father's Day is right around the corner. So why not make something yourself instead of buying it at Hallmark to show your Dad how special he is? It's a fun and simple project, and will be a unique present for Daddy Dearest!

Things you'll need:

• Card stock of your choice for the vest
• Decorative paper for the outside of the vest
• Craft paper for the shirt
• Ribbon for the tie
• Split pins or brads for buttons
• Pens that write on dark paper
• Pencil markers and ruler
• Glue stick
• Hot glue gun
• Pair of scissors
• Exacto knife or paper knife

Let's make it...

1. Start off by folding your rectangular card stock paper into a gate fold. This is the base of your card.
2. Glue the decorative paper to the top of the card with plain glue or a glue stick. Cut it in the center where the gate fold opens, and cut the edges to align with the folded card stock. Make sure you have some extra paper left over for the shirt collar, which we will make in step 7.
3. Cut the craft paper in a square with the length of the side equal to the total width of the closed card and paste it on the inside as shown in the second photo.
4. Let the glue dry completely.
5. Using a light pencil marker and a ruler, mark triangles for the sleeves and the bottom cuts. Use a sharp pair of scissors or an exacto knife to cut out these triangles to give your card the shape of a vest.
6. Take a 6" long piece of wide ribbon. Take about 1" section of one side of the ribbon and fold it in half. Roll the edges around to make it look like the knot of a necktie and hot glue it in place. Cut the bottom portion of the ribbon in a triangle to define the tail of the tie. Glue this to the top of the "shirt."
7. Cut the remainder of the craft paper into two squares, each about 1"x1". Fold them into triangles and hot glue one triangle on each side of the tie to make it look like a shirt collar. Using the pair of scissors, cut off the extra bit of paper sticking out at the back / top.
8. Use the brads to hold the corners of the collar in place, like buttons on an actual shirt collar.
9. Stick a few more brads on the vest for the buttons and fold the ends over to secure them in place.
10. Cut out little semi-circles of the same material you used for the vest to make vest pockets. You can stick a small piece of ribbon for a handkerchief in one of the pockets, or a small note.
11. Your card is almost done. All that is left is that special message for Dad to be written on the inside of the vest, which I will leave completely up to your creativity!

PS: Here is another version of the card. Instead of the decorative paper for the vest, I used a sheet of felt to give it a flannel feel. If you are using felt, you will have to hot glue it since plain glue won't work.

Tips:

• Depending on your liking, you may consider making a bow-tie instead of a necktie.
• Whatever glue you are using throughout the process, please give adequate time for the glue to dry at each step before moving onto the next step.
• If you don't have brads, you can try gluing on actual tiny buttons or make your own version of buttons from beads, play dough, or simply draw them on with colored pens.
• When cutting out the arms and sides of the vest, make sure to cut the front and back together to align them.