No More Ties! Homemade Father's Day Gift Ideas

By Adriana Copaceanu

If you are like me, you never know what to get dad for Father's Day. Well, today, you'll get a few ideas that will get you out of a bind any time.

Wallet Memories - Cut a business card size rectangle out of poster board. Decorate both sides with stickers, photographs, small messages, or drawings (for kids). Laminate it, and give it to dad. He can keep the card in his wallet - a reminder of your kind gesture.

Daddy Cake - Your child will love creating this Father's Day cake. Bake a cake and then get busy decorating. You can create a golf scene for the golfing dad, a briefcase for the businessman, or simply, just a smiley face. Oh, what fun!

Short story - Write a short story where the hero is your dad. Don't forget to mention some of the things you've always taken for granted, and never thanked him for. This will be a great keepsake for him. An alternative to this would be to write a poem for your dad and frame it for him.

Father of The Year Banner - design a father of the year banner and post it in the front yard before dad gets home on Father's Day.

Breakfast in Bed - we always do this for mom, but this time, make dad's favorite breakfast and serve him in bed. Better yet, make breakfast for 2 and leave him and mom alone to enjoy it.

Scented Pillow - sew a small pillow and fill it with cotton and a few drops of either clary sage, marjoram or ylang-ylang, or a combination of them, for an anti-stress effect. If you like, you can also hand-embroider some sweet saying like "World's Best Dad".


Adriana Copaceanu provides people with creative gift ideas that don't blow the bank. If you are looking for Father's Day Gift Ideas, look no further. Want regular reminders on gift-giving? Sign up for her free monthly newsletter, Gift News
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Fathers Day Crafts

Father's Day crafts are a perfect way for kids to show their love to their fathers without spending a huge amount of money. Father's Day crafts are articles made out of material available around the house and fashioned into cute gifts by kids. Father's Day crafts are especially popular with girls.

The greatest advantage of Father's Day crafts is that they can be prepared by children as young as three or four years old, thereby giving them a chance to know the true meaning of the celebration.

There are various examples of items and articles that can be created by children out of materials like glue, cardboard, crayons and other simple materials found commonly in households. Hand-made cards are good examples of simple father's day crafts.

The various materials used for making Father's Day crafts include cardboard, felt, paper, glue, Popsicle sticks, crayons, markers, scissors, papier-mâché, construction paper, shoe boxes, cereal boxes and juice containers.

Some examples of crafts are given below:

Business Card Holders, using Popsicle sticks, craft paint, glue and various decorations.

Pad Holder, using Post-It Pads, cardboard, markers and crayons, glue, scissors and a magnet if the pad holder has to be magnetic.

Billiards Clock, using felt paper of various colors, black marker, glue, scissors, corrugated cardboard and a set of clockworks.

A Party Pot, which is basically any material of pot painted and then glued with decorative paper.

Cute bookends with personal messages of photos can be created out of cardboard cartons, newspapers, papier-mâché, paste, and painting material.

Door knobs and wall hangings can be made from cardboard, decorations and crayons.


Fathers Day provides detailed information on Father's Day, Father's Day Cards, Father's Day Crafts, Father's Day Gift Baskets and more. Fathers Day is affiliated with Mother's Day.
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Hooting Halloween Owl Cakes

Ingredients
280g butter, softened
280g golden caster sugar
200g self-raising flour, minus 1 rounded tbsp
1 rounded tbsp cocoa powder
6 medium eggs

For Icing and Decoration
200g butter, softened
280g icing sugar, sifted
1 tube orange ready-to-use icing
1 small bag Maltesers
1 tube choco M&Ms minis (use just the brown sweets) or Cadbury's mini buttons
1 tub jelly diamonds (just the orange ones)




Method
1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with brown muffin cases. Beat the first 5 ingredients to a smooth batter and spoon between the cases, almost filling them to the top. You may have a little left over. Bake for 20-25 mins until risen and spongy. Cool on a rack.

2. Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Slice off the very tops of the cakes and cut each piece in half. Spread a generous layer of icing over each cake.

3. Working on one cake at a time, squirt a pea-sized blob of orange icing onto two Maltesers and use to fix a brown M&M on each. Sit the eyes, two pieces of cake top (curved edge up) and a jelly diamond on the icing to make an owl.

Click Here for a Vampire Bat Halloween Cake
Spookiness from http://www.halloweenmania.co.uk

Sources of Free Invitation Templates - How to Choose the Best One

There are tons of online sites that offer free invitation templates for birthday celebrations. If you're not that creative when it comes to words, you can always go to the Internet and look for ideas from party-planning sites, paper printing resources and even art-related sources. Whatever the occasion might be, the Internet can provide you with a lot of ideas and suggestions on how to go about composing those invitation words.

For the busy organizer, printing free invitation templates might be the best option. These free templates can be found in party sites and there are probably hundreds of them. Some of these are PartyCat, Gatsby and Paper Alchemy; just to name a few. You can either print the free materials or copy them and incorporate them into your personally-made designs. Sources are unlimited, but choosing the best one is another matter.

Since sites that offer such services are numerous, you might get a bit lost when it comes to choosing the appropriate template or words for your invitations. To help you choose the best one, here are some pointers.

1. What kind of party will you be holding? Is it formal? A child party? A party for a friend? Always consider the type of party for which the invitations are being made. Is it a black tie dinner? An outdoor event? A kiddie party? Whatever the case may be, your search will be much easier if you knew what kind of celebration you will be holding.

2. The age and personality of the celebrant. Of course, you cannot choose poetic and emotionally-laden invitation words if you are inviting kids, they just would not understand them yet. Select templates that best describe the celebrant's personality. If he or she is a fun-loving person, choose funny messages that highlight the celebrant's sense of humor. However, make sure that you don't go beyond being funny to being insolent. If you are not sure what is funny and what is tactless, forget about funny messages and stick with standard invitation words.

3. Make sure that the templates suit the invitation design. Poetic and serious messages do not suit a disco party-themed invitation, just like funny messages will not be appropriate for invitations for a formal dinner party. The best thing to do is to decide what design you will have for your invitation. This, of course, should reflect the theme of the party. Once you've selected your design, choosing the words will be much easier.

4. Use more than one template if the guests are diverse in terms of age and their relationship with the celebrant. A particular message might appeal to the celebrant's closest friends, but might not be appreciated by those whose connection with the birthday person is more formal and more professional. You can avoid the risk of offending anyone by using one set of message for one set of guests and a different one for another group of invitees. Just make sure that you can identify who's who in relation to the celebrant.

Free invitation templates make the job of creating invitation messages much easier. For the busy organizer, the answer to your dilemma is just one mouse click away.
Find loads of birthday invitation information and advice, articles and free invitation templates at your #1 Birthday invitation resource: http://www.birthday-invite.com/

How To Make Paper Tissue Flowers

Learning how to make tissue paper flowers is an easy and creative way to spend your time. I was unfortunately involved in a horrific accident a while ago and bed ridden for months as a result of this accident. With all this time on my hands, I decided to read up on different ways to express myself through the art of making them. This hobby is so relaxing that I recommend it to anyone, no matter what their age or creative ability.

There are only a handful of items that are needed to create a paper tissue flower and most of them can be found right around your house. You need some tissue paper and a pipe cleaner, a pencil, a pair of scissors and a ruler. Then you will have everything needed to start and complete your project.

You can begin by folding each sheet the width of a pencil (accordion or fan style). Then lay all the sheets on top of each other making sure all the creases meet. Then fold the whole thing again, and put the pipe cleaner in the middle of the accordion. Now wrap the pipe cleaner two times around the accordion and fold down the top of the pipe cleaner and twist. Then, you will carefully cut off each of the ends of the accordion, making the corners round. Then carefully fan out all the sheets so none are stuck together until a fluffy flower appears.

Whole flower bouquets can be made in a broad range of sizes and colors. The petals can be folded or cut at any size imaginable. You can make larger or smaller flowers depending on your taste.You can use many different types of colored tissue paper when designing these flowers. This will create multi-colored blossoms that will be one of the main topics of conversation at your next house party. Tie-dye or colored splashed tissue paper flowers can be used to bring some color to a dull, dreary room or to cheer up a sickly person.

A couple of months ago, I was visiting a dear, old friend in the hospital when I realized that tissue paper flowers would lighten, and cheer up her room drastically. Because she was deafly allergic to real flowers my tissue flowers were the key. The next day I returned to the hospital and brought a vase full of my multi-colored flowers and gave it to her. She was so happy that she began to cry. Thirty plus years I have known this lady and I never saw her so happy, and it gave me this feeling of warmth all over my body that is unforgettable.

There is nothing better than the feeling you get when you look at the finished product. I cannot begin to explain the satisfaction you will get from this inexpensive old pass time. Our great grandmothers, and their grandmothers made these flowers and now we can enjoy this sensational hobby also.

As I said before, its an inexpensive hobby with numerous amounts of paper tissue flowers that can be created. It very therapeutic process that is used in most nursing homes today. It helps to loosen up the fingers of patients with joint pain problems while keeping their minds working and learning. There are no limits on what the imagination can visualize and the rewarding challenge of making these flowers is one of the ways.

I hope you will consider mastering a skill that is just simply amazing to have. You will be thankful you did.


Erich Simko is an avid and enthusiastic Paper Flower creator, Origamist and Arts and Crafts buff. Learning How To Make Paper Tissue Flowers in particular has helped him through difficult times in his life and he believes it will bring much joy to your life as well.

Visit the new Halloween site packed full of fun http://www.halloweenmania.co.uk/

How To Build A Lamp Out Of Rocks

A lamp out of rocks?...Am I crazy? Actually, I have been doing this for a few years now and when done correctly, the final product is beautiful and extremely unique. If you decide to take this venture on, be prepared for your family and friends to be in awe of your new wonderful creation. A stone lamp fits wonderfully in that cabin of yours in the woods or can be placed in that special rustic corner in your traditional home.

Let's get started with the tools and parts you will need. These tools are essential for getting this project done correctly and may require a little bit of a financial investment to get started.

A drill press. The press does not have to be a large, floor model...it can be a bench top type for now. It does have to have a setting on it that will enable the drill to go fairly slowly through the rock. A setting of around 200-300 rounds per minute is best.

A 3/8" mortise bit. The mortise bit for this purpose only has to be around 5" long. DO NOT buy a carbide-coated bit, as these seem to not work as well. Home Depot or Lowe's both carry a standard 3/8" mortise bit for around $5.00.

A lamp kit with a harp included. These lamp kits are easy to use and will come with everything you need to put your lamp together. You will want to make sure the kit comes with a harp also if you are planning on using a shade that requires a harp. These sell for around $8.00 at most hardware stores.

A 3/8" thread rod around 10 inches long. This rod can be bought along with your lamp kit in the hardware's lighting section. Usually, the lengths come in 24" to 36" and cost around $4.00. After you put the lamp together, you will want to cut the rod to length and I will explain how to do that.

A hack saw for cutting the 3/8" rod to length.

A good strong epoxy glue that sets within 30 minutes.

An angle grinder with a wheel suitable to grind rock.

Your Rock

The best place to get your rock for your lamp is to find a dried up riverbed. Rocks from dried riverbeds tend to be easier to drill and lend themselves more easily to making a lamp. Please note: We don't want to disturb riverbeds that are in use by our natural rivers and streams but picking up rock from dried up sources poses no harm to the environment. You will need a base to start with. Look around for a fairly flat base that when set down on a table, it won't rock back and forth but will sit stable. For this project, your base should be about 8 inches square and about 1 inch to 2 inches thick or thereabouts (any variation is ok as long it is fairly flat). After you have found your base, look for smaller rocks of different shapes and sizes and choose ones that are fairly flat on both sides too. This will make it easier to drill and fit together on your lamp. These should be around ½ " thick or so. You will need about 6 of these smaller rocks.

Drilling The Rock

Now that you have gathered your choice rock for your lamp, it is time to drill. Place the base of the rock on your drill press and roughly find the center of the rock. (You do not have to be exactly perfect in finding the center as this is a rustic lamp and if you are a little off, it only makes it more rustic and interesting). You should make sure that where you are going to drill is relatively flat so the drill bit does not dance around on you. (Before you drill, make sure you have a little water on hand to either spray the drill bit or splash some on to it as the drill bit can get very hot and could break if not kept cool). Begin drilling slowly, around 200 to 300 rounds per minute, and continue until you are completely through. Yeah....you did it! Now, repeat these steps with your remaining smaller rock until all are drilled and ready to put together.

Pre-Assembly

Take your length of 3/8" rod and cut it down to about 10" or so. Place the rod into the larger base and start stacking the smaller rock on top. Since none of these rocks are exactly flat, you may have to move them around a little to make sure they fit together snuggly so that the inner rod does not show. After you have completed this process you will most likely have extra rod on top that needs to be cut off. Taking your lamp parts into consideration, you will have to leave enough rod to hold your coupler, your piece that holds your harp, and your actual lamp fixture base. Usually, this means leaving about 1 inch or so above the last stacked rock. You can test this by getting all your lamp parts out, putting them one by one on the top of the extra rod, and then making a mark just under the first piece (coupler) to see how extra rod you need to leave protruding out. Mark your rod where you need to cut it, pull off the rock one by one keeping them in order and cut your rod to length.

Final Assembly

Put your pre-cut rod back into the base and put some of your epoxy glue around the hole where the rod fits into and around a small area where your first small rock is going to sit. Take your first small rock and slide it down over the rod and put it on top of the glued area on your base. (It is important to keep your glue area small so it is not seen after the rocks are placed together). Continue this process until all the rocks are places tightly together on the rod. Make sure the inside of your rod is clear all the way through the center without any obstructions so you can slide your lamp cord through it in the next step. You have now completed the most difficult part of making this lamp. Let your lamp sit for a couple of hours or so to let the glue set up.

Using the directions on your lamp kit box, assemble the rest of the lamp parts as shown. You will have to push your cord all the way through from the bottom of the base. (Sometimes, depending on the rock base, your cord will not sit correctly under the base and may cause the base to rock a little. This is where you will need your angle grinder with a wheel suitable to grind rock. Turn your lamp upside down and take your angle grinder and dig a small indentation from the middle of the rock where the rod is towards the back of the lamp. Just make sure the groove is deep enough to hold the lamp cord).

Finally, spray the lamp with a satin or semi-gloss clear lacquer to seal the rock and to bring out the natural colors of the stone. Apply two or three coats of the lacquer. After the lacquer is dry, you may want to put a piece of felt on the bottom of your lamp so it will not scratch the table it sits on.

Congratulations, you have now made a beautiful rustic stone lamp!

Mike Powers is an internet marketer and craftsman. Mike's website, Clearwater Cabin Living, offers a variety of tools to equip you along the way in creating the cabin and outdoor lifestyle you desire. We offer articles on building and decorating your dream cabin, great trails to hike, camping tips, the best ways to hook a rainbow trout, outdoor cooking and much, much more. http://www.clearwatercabinliving.com/

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Bingo Card Creator Software

At some point in their lives, most people have played the game of bingo, but even those who haven't probably do know how to play the game. Even if you don't know however, it's very easy to learn!

1. One person acts as the bingo caller and referee.

2. The other participants are all players.

3. Each of the players is given a bingo card containing a grid of squares, each square containing a number.

4. The bingo caller calls out numbers in a random order, and the players mark off any square on their cards which matches the number.

5. When a player gets a complete line across his card (vertical, horizontal or diagonal), he calls out "Bingo!". The first player to call bingo is the winner.

6. If you prefer a longer game, instead of a single winning line you can require two or more complete lines, or even players to mark off every single item on their bingo card.

So far so good - you're probably already familiar with all the above. Today however, variations on the standard game, most frequently using bingo cards containing customized items based around a particular theme (instead of numbers), are growing in popularity.

Some examples include:

- Bingo has become very popular with teachers. This is because it can be adapted to almost any lesson or subject, and thus become a fun as well as educational classroom activity.

- Holiday bingo is played using cards relating to a particular holiday. For example a Christmas-themed game would be played using cards containing words like "angel", Bethlehem or "shepherds". Of course there are many other holidays around the year which can be used to inspire specially themed bingo games, including New Year, Valentine's Day, July 4th, and Halloween.

- Wedding and baby shower bingo are also growing in popularity. As you might expect, these variants are played using words relating to weddings or babies.

If you fancy playing any of these versions of bingo, you will of course need bingo cards relating to your chosen theme. While it may be possible to obtain preprinted cards for certain (not all!) themes from a specialist publisher, the cheapest and most flexible option is almost certainly to print them yourself using your computer. If you use some bingo card creator software, you can simply put in a list of the possible items, and the software will generate as many different cards as you want.

By S. Tanna. For free bingo card printables, please go to http://www.bingocardscreator.com/To create your own custom bingo cards, please go to http://www.bingocardprinter.com/

More kids games at http://www.bigboystoyz.com