by Sara Let me preface this post with a statement about my artistic abilities (none) and my craftiness (about 6th grade level): I love doing arts and crafts with my boys but am by no means 'crafty'.

For Father's Day this year we decided to make pencil / tool holders for our daddy and grandpa's. All three are relatively handy so we hoped our gift would make a welcome addition to their tool bench or office desk. We even bought a few screw drivers and pens to demonstrate the usefulness of the project (and ensure clarity upon gift-opening).

I bought wooden boxes at Michael's for $1.99 each but a tin can covered in paper would work just as well.

I chose the boxes because I have two boys and there was a side for each of them to paint and claim as their own. Hence the painting tape dividing each side: they are both possessive about their painting surfaces.

My oldest painted his side first, with selection of Crayola paints. I normally use bottles of tempera paint and mix my own colours but for gift projects he likes the variety of the Crayola 10 pack. I'll be honest, he likes their pink and purple.

After the first side dried I let my youngest loose on his section of the box, with mixed results. Mixed paint that is (a purplish-brown) and some very green 2-year old hair.

We finished our project with a Sharpie pen. On one blank side we wrote "Father's Day, 2010" and on the second blank side the firefighter filled in the sentence "I love Daddy / Grandpa because...". I also 'signed' their names on each wooden canvas so they could lay claim to their masterpiece for posterity's sake.

I always keep blank cards handy for birthday's, anniversaries etc. For Father's Day I had our four year old draw a picture on the front of him doing something special with his dad and grandpa's and then I wrote the accompanying text.

For less than $10, we are all happy with the results!

Sara is mom to a 4-year-old firefighter and 2-year-old monkey. You can find her at her blog, My Points of View