How hard are Dad's to buy for on Fathers Day? Instead of more socks and chocolates this year, surprise them with a gorgeous keepcase piece of art made by their very own child. These craft ideas are perfect for school or vacation care activities as groups of kids can all be involved at the same time... Kids will be so proud to present their masterpieces to the Dads and there might even be budget left over for some socks and chocolates after all ;)   

1. Fathers Day Shrinky Dink Key-rings 

This is a super simple craft project that lends itself very well to groups of kids i.e. before and after hours school care and vacation care activity. The bonus is that's its also something that Dad's will love to receive and actually use! 

To complete this craft you'll need to following: 

- Set of Shrinky Dinks 

- A Black, Red and Blue Sharpie

- Various coloured pencils

- Scissors

- A hole punch 

- Your oven (or toaster oven) 

- Key rings

- Our handy designs template 

Start by finding the designs you want to use for the shape of your key ring, or use the template we put together here. 

Trace the designs onto a blank sheet of Shrinky Dinks, you will get 4 designs per sheet - which means one pack will be enough for 40 designs in total. 

For the note design, draw the outline and then have the child write their own special message to their Dad, this is such a special gift for Dad's to receive and some of the messages end up being unintentionally hilarious, a proper keepsake. 

Follow the steps found on our Christmas Charms tutorials to colour, cut, hole punch and bake your designs.  

Once the Shrinky Dink key rings have cooled thread the key ring through the hole and voila your fathers day shrinky dink key ring in finished!

 2. Perler or Hama Bead Fathers Day Coaster 

This is such a cute and simple idea, the craft itself take 30 minutes to an hour so a great project to keep little minds engaged and there are endless ways for kids to express themselves creatively with colour and design choices. 

Here's what we used to make our coaster: 

- We used the square end of the arch peg board for the coaster shape, turns out it's exactly the right size for a coaster!

- This time we used Playbox Heat Fusible Beads, but any type of fusible beads will work fine. 

- A piece of baking paper

- An iron and ironing board 

- We free handed the design, but there are many places on the internet of Pinterest that have fusible bead designs which can help if your stuck for ideas.

 Once you've gathered your supplies start assembling your design, a good way to get kids thinking creatively is to ask them questions about how they want their design to look, what are their Dad's favourite colours, hobbies or shapes that remind them of their Dad. You can even ask each child to sketch their design using pencil and paper before assembling on the pegboard. 

Get beading! We've found the easiest (and least messy) way to do melty bead art is to transfer the beads into a tray of some kind, this makes it easy for children to find the colour bead they are looking for and (hopefully) less chance of the entire bucket getting knocked over... we may or may not have learned this lesson the hard way! 

Once the design is completed, follow the usual process to cover the design in a piece of baking paper and iron on a low heat until the beads fuse together. 

 All that's left is to wrap it up for the lucky Dad to receive on Father's Day, a gift from the heart that he's sure to enjoy with pride for many years to come :)