Father's Day Shirt and Tie Card

Father's Day is a week away!  I don't really think I've ever gone big with presents (for this or Mother's Day), but I like giving my parents cards.  Sometimes I buy them, but the handmade ones are always more special than store-bought.  There are still things I made for my parents as a kid lying around their house even though they're only worth the sentimental value.  Even last year, when I was 24, I gave my dad the handmade card below (though since I had already bought one for him, the handmade one was from my cat, Spartacus, obviously).

Pattern below

I didn't come up with this myself.  We did it with the kids (ages 5-11) in Sunday School on Father's Day last year.  I'm not sure where the head of the Children's Ministry found the idea, but I'm publishing it below step-by-step with pictures, because some parts are a little tricky, especially with enthusiastic kids.  I had the materials from mistakes kids made and confiscating some pieces that ended up with not-great-for-church-words on them.  My dad loved it.  I just need to come up with something else this year.

Father's Day Shirt and Tie Card
Get all the materials together:

• 1 piece of heavier paper
• Scrapbook paper cut 2 inches wide (this will be the tie - choose a good color!)
• Scissors
• Glue stick (tape is a good backup in case it doesn't stick - liquid glues might warp the paper)
• Pencil
• Ruler (unless you want to eyeball measurements)
• Optional: more paper in case you want to make a tie template or plan to make mistakes

Materials

1. Fold the paper in half "hamburger style", so [with standard paper] it's 8.5" tall and 5.5" wide.  Turn it so you're looking at the front of the card (fold on the left).

2. About 1" down from the top of the card, draw a straight line on each side about 1.75" long, starting from the edge

Lines drawn at the top

 3. Cut through the front and back paper of the card along the lines you just drew.

Cut along the lines

Make sure you cut through the front and back, not just the front

 4. Put the scrapbook paper as shown to be sure that it's about the same width as the uncut space

Just about fits

 5. Cut along the fold only on the top to where the other cuts are.  Do not cut along the fold of the bottom part of the card.

Cut along the fold

Only cut the top fold, not below that

 6. Cut off only the back of the card above the cuts you made in step 3.

• If you accidentally cut off the front instead of the back, there's an easy fix:  Just fold the card in the other direction.  This makes the back the front.
• If you accidentally cut off the front and the back, you can continue, you'll just have to start over from step 2 with a shorter card.

The back top part is gone

The taller side should be to the left of the fold when the card is open

 7. Take the top corners and place them in the spot on the card where they meet.  The top corners should touch as shown in the picture below.

• Do not glue anything down

The kids had trouble with this, even seeing an example.  You might need to help since it's an angled fold.

 Optional:  Trace a tie template on scrap paper.  The widest width should be 2".  The total length should be as tall as the card (8.5").

Making sure the tie template fits

 8. Trace the tie shape on the back of the scrapbook paper either freehand or using the template from the above optional step.  The height of the tie should be the height of the card (8.5") and the width of it should be 2".

Using a template

Even if not using a template, it's better to trace to make sure you get a tie shape

 9. Cut out the tie from the scrapbook paper.

Cut out and ready to go

 10. Make sure the tie looks right, but don't glue anything yet.

 11. Fold as shown below.  First fold at the narrowest part right below the "knot" backward so the white (back) of the paper is touching.  Then fold again just slightly below that forward so the colorful (front) of the paper is touching.  This adds some volume and makes it look more like it's actually knotted.

Fold front

Fold back

What the tie looks like from the back

 12. Glue the tie to the card as shown below.  I liked it with the top of the tie slightly above where the cuts from step 3 are.  This way, the bottom of the tie is below the bottom of the card.  Put it on how it looks right to you.  I glued the whole tie down so it wouldn't flap around and pieces were less likely to get lost.

13. Decorate the card however you want and write a nice message inside!  I left mine pretty plain, but the kids drew pockets and patterns on the shirt.  They also added stickers and drew other things.  It doesn't have to be perfect, just from the heart.


I loved doing this with kids.  They drew pictures for and wrote notes to their dads and were so eager to share with us all about why they love and look up to their dads.  One even drew a comic inside.
Most importantly, have fun and happy Father's Day!