Josh's Father's Day Gift

I spent a lot of time last week working on Josh’s Father’s Day present from Dylan and me. Of course, Dylan helped immensely with his moral support and constant need to see what I’m doing. He also played a vital role in the actual present.

I got the idea from my cousin’s wife, who did this for my cousin Matt last year for Father’s Day. I don’t want to take credit, because she was the creative one. But I loved it so much that I had to do it too! I hope she doesn’t mind!

So it started with a trip to Michael’s to get the plain letters. I decided to not only get S-I-T-K-O, but also D-Y-L-A-N to hang up in the little guy’s room. I also had to buy paint and brushes since I am not currently crafty enough to just have those things lying around the house.

I had the perfect plan to get as much painting done as possible while Dylan was sleeping one day. Unfortunately, it was like he knew I was anxious to work on something important, so he waited an extra hour before wanting to take his nap. And then he woke up long before I was ready! But he let me get some done while having some snacks and watching Mama trying her best to be crafty. This trend continued on day two of painting.

I started with the blank letters and painted them solid colors:

Then I wanted to give each one a fun design:

But trouble started when I got out the red paint. The blue, green and yellow worked like a charm, but the red was out to get me. When I started painting I realized that the “Red Rover” color looked more like “Party Pink.” I knew that Josh would not be okay with me hanging pink letters in his little boy’s room. Maybe if I put like 5 coats on, it will look more like the shade of primary red that I’m looking for. Okay, first crisis averted.

Once all the letters were painted (and dried) we were ready for a big photo shoot. The Wednesday before Father’s Day, we went to the park by the Marina for some creative photo taking. I had the help and extra brain power of Katie, and the excited enthusiasm of Elleah. Crisis number two became obvious as soon as we set foot in the park. We were completely overrun by bugs! Instead of giving up, I decided to push through, wave my hands around in the air as much as possible like a crazy person, and get these photos taken asap!

Of course, my little angel was wonderful! I got several cute photos of each letter in record time. So crisis number three was trying to pick one photo of each letter.

So now we only had to print them and get them in the frame! It turned out great and I was so excited that I couldn't even wait until Father’s Day to have Josh open it. (I am truly my mother’s daughter - she gets super excited about presents too) He opened this afternoon and already hung it in our living room!

Photo of finished project to follow…