Father's Day Gift

Thanks to Living Locurto, I came up with this for my dad for Father's Day. To make it, I used digital scrapbooking paper and elements (that I have gotten for free). It would have been just as easy to do this with real paper and elements, but I didn't have them handy or available. I made them in Publisher. And here they are.
The outside says 'One COOL Dad - Happy Father's Day'

The DAD COUPONS are good for one free: yard work pass, chore pass, show sweeping, cheesecake or other dessert, control of the remote (for one day only), car or truck wash.

In addition to the coupons, I made a 'sticker' for dad that said 'Cool Dad' on it. Since mom's always seem to get flowers, I thought it would be good for dad to get a sticker. :)

Happy crafting!

Buttons Galore!

[I apologize for the blurriness of this picture. That's about as good as I could get it with my camera and the fluorescent lights.]

What you see here are mini buttons I put together for my upcoming Citizen Washington Focus trip to Washington DC. I am a chaperone for this trip, and am looking forward to it. One big part of the trip is that the students take pins/buttons that they purchase, make, or request from business, and swap them with other youth from around the country. After some of the chaperones made calls, sent emails, etc, we realized we weren't rounding up the pins like we had hoped. That's where these guys come in.

I recalled that the Workspace on campus often advertises that people can make their own buttons. So I checked in to it. The above buttons are what myself and 2 other chaperones made one night, in about a 3 hour time span. After work, before the others got there, I cut out 400 (100 of each) of the designs, and had a good start on assembling them. We could have been done a lot faster, but they have only 1 of each button machine size. So we just assembled them one at a time. It was really quite easy. The hardest part was getting them all cut out. I think next time I'll take a Stampin' Up punch (or something similiar) and cut out the circles that way. It would be much easier and more accurate.

The top left button says 'Iowa - Youth - Power', with 4 hands clasping a wrist, with the 4-H clover in the middle. (The hand graphic and saying was sent in by one of the youth. I added the 4-H clover.) The top right is an outline of Iowa, with the 4-H clover on it. There is a green border that you can't really see. (I would like to have made it wider, so it could be seen on the front. Oh well.) The bottom left is my favorite! It says 'Fresh Picked - Sweet Corn - Bushels Ahead! - 2 Miles'. I then added 'Iowa' to one of the ears of corn. To me, sweet corn and Iowa just go together. I sure can't wait to finally eat some! The bottom right button is a picture of a covered bridge, since we are famous for our covered bridges. This was sent in by one of the youth as well. I added 'Iowa' to this one as well.

To make 400 mini buttons and use the Workspace's equipment, it cost about $65.

So if any of you are looking for a fun project to do with kids or adults, or cheap and easy gifts to give out, or maybe you feel like putting your picture on a button, this would be the thing to do.

Happy Crafting!