7 Father’s Day DIY Gift Ideas That Are The Perfect Labor of Love

Father's day is a special day that reminds us of the importance of fathers and everything they do for us. They guide us, teach us and love us, holding our hands as we grow, fumble, and eventually push us to thrive. And while we should appreciate them and all parents every day, father’s day is a great opportunity to show your love for the old man in a special way. 

You could go to the store and buy a perfectly decent tie or wallet, but why not go the extra mile with something that has a personal touch? DIY gift ideas are the perfect opportunity to make something with your own hands - literally, a labor of love - to recognize and appreciate the labor of love that is fatherhood. They don’t take much time or skill, but they’re well worth the effort. 

Photo Blocks

This father’s day gift is so easy to make the kids can easily take part. All you need are some wooden blocks, some acrylic paints, gloss, paintbrushes, and scissors.

Fun and Easy DIY Gift Ideas to Make for Dad

How to Make It

The first order of business is to paint the wooden blocks in a color of your choice. Once this is done and the paint has dried, it’s just a simple matter of cutting the pictures to size and gluing each of them with the gloss so that half of the picture is on one block and half is on the other. 

Each picture - presumably pictures of a son/daughter - will need at least two blocks, so be sure that each pair of blocks is painted the same color. You may have to apply a few coats of gloss over and under the pictures to ensure that they stick to the blocks. This project won’t take longer than a few hours, and once the blocks dry you’ll have a nice set of colored blocks that you can mix and match. This makes a charming father’s day gift that can be kept on an office desk as a decoration. 

Wooden Cell Phone Stand 

Dad’s carry around a lot of stuff: a smartphone (or two), a watch, some pens, a billfold, maybe even a fanny pack. One way to lighten that load is to give them somewhere to put stuff neatly instead of just piling it all onto the nightstand, or worse, on their desk while they work. A wooden smartphone stand is an excellent father’s day gift to put in a man cave, a home office, or on a nightstand. One of these can easily be made with some wood glue, a wood clamp, some dowel pieces, and a small wooden plank. 

How to Make a Crafty Wooden Cell Phone Stand for Dad

How to Make It

You’re aiming for the wooden plank to be one inch bigger on all four sides than the smartphone it’s going to hold. Most smartphones nowadays have gotten rather big at about 6.6” screen size, so make sure that your phone holder can accommodate phones of this size. Finally, you also need a smaller piece of wood that is the same width as the plank but is only a half-inch long. This small piece of wood is what will hold the phone as its backrests on the plank. 

Use a power drill to put in one hole on the lower left and the lower right corner of the plank so that the dowels can be used to prop up the plank. These holes should be one-eighth of an inch above the bottom edge of the plank and should go all the way through it. Drill corresponding holes in the smaller piece of wood. The holes should only go halfway through the smaller piece of wood and will allow you to use the same dowels to hold up the small piece of wood. 

Once the dowels fit snugly through the holes in the plank and the holes in the small piece of wood, add wood glue to the holes in the small piece of wood. When the glue has solidified your phone stand should be ready for use. You may have to do a bit of sanding to get rid of rough edges since these can scratch up a smartphone. 

Wood and Stone Charcuterie Board

This father’s day DIY gift might sound technical, but it’s not too hard to make. What you need is a piece of hardwood (oak or maple are ideal) and a slab of marble of identical width. You also need a piece of birch plywood with length and width measurements that match those of the hardwood plank and marble slab when they are put together. This birch plywood will act as the back of the board, holding it together and providing it with a nice backing that won’t scratch your worktops. To get this measurement, press the plank and hardwood together and measure them with a tape measure. 

Handmade Wood and Stone Charcuterie Board for the Dad Who Loves to Host

How to Make It

Err on getting a piece of hardwood and a piece of birch that are slightly too big rather than too small. If either piece of wood is slightly too wide, this can easily be corrected with a planer and some sanding, but there’s no easy way to make either piece of wood wider if the width is too small. Once your wood is the correct size, you’ll want to sand the edges of the hardwood you’re going to use to reduce the risk of splintering. To assemble the charcuterie board, use some strong glue to attach the hardwood and the marble to the plywood backing. 

Once this is done, use a pile of heavy books as a press that will keep the cutting board together as the glue dries. When the glue dries, some sanding may be necessary before this stylish father’s day DIY gift is ready for hosting.     

Memorabilia Cufflinks 

Custom-made cufflinks? The options are endless: a stone you found together hiking, the date of a very memorable day, his alma mater mascot, or etched-on monograms can all be assembled onto a blank cufflink. DIY cufflinks such as these have more character than anything you could get from a fancy couture store. Scissors, cufflinks, a thin strip of leather, an alphabet punch, and some tacky glue are all the things you need to make a monogrammed leather cufflink.

DIY Cufflinks Perfect for Father's Day Keepsakes

How to Make It

Using some blank cufflinks, you can easily trace small circles in the leather and cut these out with some scissors. Then, using an alphabet punch, you can put in some letter impressions on the leather (be sure to dampen the leather with a wet cloth first). These can be the monogram of your father’s name or even a monogram of your name so your dad never forgets who his favorite is.

Once the impressions have been made on the leather, all you have to do is glue the leather circles to the cufflinks with tacky glue and let things dry. Be sure to wipe away any excess glue before it dries so that your elegant father’s day DIY gift is as cool as can be.  

Personalized Wooden Coasters

This is another father’s day gift that’s easy enough to make for the kids to get involved in making as well. A charming personalized wooden coaster is just what dad needs to enjoy a cool drink out on the deck or patio. We all have instant access to photos from the past twenty-something years of our lives, but there’s nothing quite like seeing photos in print form rather than on a screen. To make these coasters, all you need is some cork, some printed photos, a ruler, a utility knife, some mod podge, and a pencil. 

All You Need to Let Your Imagination Take the Lead for DIY Coasters

How to Make It

Get your kids involved by measuring and tracing out the squares of the coasters in the cork plank. When everything is measured out, let your kids take a small break and use a utility knife to cut out the coasters from the plank of cork. Now, your kids can come back into the picture to, well, glue the pictures. To glue the pictures to the coasters, apply a few coats of mod podge to the underside of the picture, attach it, and then apply some more coats to the top of the picture. To make the pictures last longer, you can apply some stick vinyl laminate sheets to the coasters after measuring and cutting them to the size needed so that your father’s day gift endures through the years. 

If printed pictures aren’t your style, you can let your inner artist take the wheel and transform the cork coasters with your own painted creations.

Leather Keychain

More leather, more leather punches, more paint (notice a theme yet?). This is another one of those accessories that you could just buy in a store, but nothing you find in the local menswear section is ever going to have the same charm as a father’s day gift you made by hand all by yourself. For this father’s day DIY gift, you’ll need to get some brass clasps attached to keychains, some strips of leather, some rivets, and a leather punch. 

Personalize Your Father Day Gifts with Tiny Labors of Love

How to Make It

All this stuff can be found at your local hardware store. Once the leather strap is attached to the keychain with some rivets and the leather punch, you’re free to use paint to add whatever decoration you can envision. The leather strap is really handy for helping dad fish out his key from his cargo pant pocket, making a task that can often be frustrating and time-consuming much easier.