Tips & Tricks for an Awesome Father's Day Photo Print

You guys have probably seen this photo print idea floating around pinterest – isn’t the idea brilliant? How amazing would it be to have one of these from every year showing how the kids have grown and changed?

I’m definitely putting this idea on the “to-do list” for this Father’s Day – which is why I’m so happy Kaley is here with us sharing lots of creative tips and clever ideas for getting it done right.

Father’s Day is this weekend (seriously, how is it June already?) and we have a fun little project that you are going to want to do for the dad in your life, whether you add it to another gift or give it all on it’s own.

Materials needed:

cute kids – yep, we’ve all got a few of those!
letters to spell out your name of choice (dad, daddy, papa, grandpa, etc.)
some kind of camera – a point and shoot, a DSLR, a smart phone, even your computer’s web cam would work.

Start by rounding up those cute kids of yours, and going on a treasure hunt around your house to find all of the different letters that could be used to spell out your message. You will be surprised by how many options you will find. Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

alphabet building blocks

puzzles

matching games

bath toys

wall letters (I love vintage sign letters and my daughter’s nursery featured a fun alphabet wall using my collection, so we ended up using a few of those.)

Some other options include magnets, LEGOs (I know a lot of kids who are so good with legos that it would be a cinch to form letters with them), or for those of you wanting to turn this into an art project, have the kids draw or paint each letter on a separate sheet of paper, then cut them out.

This is a great activity all on its own, whether your child is just learning to recognize letters, or is obsessed with starting to spell everything like my daughter is. Take your time and practice spelling Dad with as many materials as you have available.

Now that you have your message all ready to go, it’s time to take your photos.

I took three different photos, because we only have one child. But if you have enough kids to spell out your message all in one photo, go for it!

Depending on how many children you have in your family, you could stick with a simple Dad, or Daddy, or for extra large families, even stretch it out to be “We Love Dad” or “We ♥ Dad”. And it would be extra special to get all the grandchildren together to spell out Grandpa. You can choose to have one child holding one letter, or get into groups, or mix it up. The idea with this project is to have fun, get the kids involved, and produce a great keepsake for Dad.

You do not need a fancy camera to make this look amazing. A smart phone is the easiest choice, and produces great photos. If your kids are old enough, let them practice their photography skills and be even more involved in the process by taking pictures of each other. I am always surprised by what great pictures my 3 year old can take using my iPhone.

You have awesome photos of your kids spelling out Dad, now comes the fun part. Choose how you would like to display these for Dad. I printed the photos on thick card stock on my home printer, and pasted them onto a bright colored plain card for a personalized Father’s Day card.

If you want this to really be the star of the show, try printing your image(s) and framing them or even having them printed onto a gallery wrapped canvas. If you are short on time, or far away from Dad this Father’s Day, you could also email them. No matter what you do with your images, Dad is going to love them.

Happy Father’s Day!