(crafting on a dime) father’s day tree

Hi, I’m Kelly from Notable Nest and am super excited to be a part of Vanessa’s blog today. I absolutely love crafting, and am passionate about paper. After re-organizing my craft room, and realizing that my stack of cardstock actually touches the ceiling, I started to wonder if an intervention is needed for my obsession! Nah, it’s all good. I love to scrapbook, make home decor items, throw parties and design cards.

To show Dad just how much we appreciate him this Father’s Day (because let’s face it, we’re often too distracted with “life” to tell him this stuff on a day-to-day basis) I created a “Why We Love Dad” tag tree. Super simple concept. Put a stick in a can and hang tags from the stick with reasons why everyone loves Dad. It was fun interviewing my two sons and hearing their answers. Some I would have predicted, and some were a surprise.

With my house reaching its storage capacity, I always have on my mind what we are going to do with things long-term. And let’s face it, we’re probably not going to want to look at Dad’s tree next year too. So, I thought of a cute way to recycle this craft when you’re done with it. Take all the tags off, slip them through a key chain ring, and you have an instant mini album. Perfect! I have photos for you at the end. Now that it’s all thought out, let’s begin!

Directions

Step 1: Leave the paper wrapper on the tin can so you have something to stick your patterned paper to. Cover with pattern paper. Since my tin can is large, a standard 12″ paper was not long enough to go around. So I cut an additional strip of paper and stamped it to make it look intentional. Cover the inside of the can with coordinating paper. My paper is double sided so I simply used the reverse side. All the matching is done for you that way! You can leave the silver lip of the can showing. Since mine was a little rusty (I left the pineapple juice in it far too long!) I covered the lip with washi tape.

Step 2: Decorate the outside of your can with a message for Dad. You can use letter stickers, stamps, die cuts, your own handwriting, whatever. I made the banners for “love” simply by cutting a strip of paper, notching the end with scissors, folding the top around a string, and taping it in the back.

Step 4: Print your photos. I printed 8 small photos per 4×6 paper. If you don’t have an easy way to put smaller images on a single 4×6 image, I have a fabulous solution for you. It’s a free program called Phototility. You drag the photos you want to use to its workspace, chose how many photos you want on a 4×6 paper, click the save button, and it automatically creates the file and saves it to your directory. Couldn’t be easier! I’ve used this for years and the time savings it gives me is one of the reasons I got back into scrapbooking again.

Step 5:Attach your photos to the tags and write the corresponding reason why you love Dad below. You can use the plain white tags and leave it at that. Or stamp a pattern or saying on the back.

Or cut the tags out of double sided paper so the back is already decorated. Since I have a die cutting machine and didn’t want to buy tags, I cut them out of double sided paper.

I used a different colored paper for each person giving love for Dad (my two sons and myself). I stamped some sentiments with some extra tags, and wrote a note to dad about this project on the yellow tag on the right.

Step 6: Thread scraps of fiber through the tag and hang from your tree.

Here’s another option if you’re not the crafty type or are short on time. Look around your house at your decor. Do you have a floral arrangement? Sticks in a vase? A chandelier? Just hang the tags from what you already have! I have glittery twigs that I got from Crate and Barrel after Christmas for 50% off (love their sales!) Here’s what the tags look like on those…

[optional] Step 7: When you’re tired of looking at the huge tree in your living room, cut the tags from their fiber hangers and slide them onto a ring to make your mini album. Much easier to store!  So cute. So simple.

 

Thanks so much for letting me join you today! I can’t wait to see my husband’s expression when he sees his tree and reads through each of our reasons. I think the kids will really be excited too. Should you decide to show your love for Dad with a tag tree I’d love to hear about it!

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