25 Last Minute Father’s Day Gift Upcycle Ideas

If you love upcycling, then waiting until the last minute to get your Father’s Day Gift sorted doesn’t need to be a disaster. We’ve got you covered with this list of fun ideas for upcycled last minute Father’s Day gifts.

The best part is you can use the junk already laying around your house for these fun and creative DIY Projects!

But don’t leave it too late…

Upcycled Clocks

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This isn’t a ridiculous pun about last minute Father’s Day gifts, it’s a serious suggestion. You obviously can’t leave this one until literally the last minute, you’ll need at least a day for Prime Delivery of the clock mechanism and depending what design you go for maybe some time for glue and paint to dry. But we think this particular gift looks a lot less last minute than it actually could be….want to look like you really spent time thinking about it, this is the one to go for.

Just take your cue from what he’s into and what you have lying around the house.

Does he like puzzles? Wack a puzzle piece at each station of the clock (obviously not one he’s currently working on).

Beer? Obviously beer bottle caps.

DIY? This is the easiest one of all, grab some screws, nails, nuts, etc, glue them to your backing board and spray paint the whole thing his favourite colour.

Then hang it in his workshop with a post it note next to the hour when he really should be closing the tool box and coming to bed!

Man Bracelets

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Did you see our How to Guide for making a chunky bracelet from old bicycle chain? Our guide encouraged you to spray paint it pink when you were done but maybe if you are short on time and the father in question isn’t that big a fan of hot pink you could just buff it clean or choose another colour to spray paint it?

The third photo above is a super easy twine and nuts bracelet. You tie a loop at one end with the twine and plat/braid the twine, threading the nuts through either side as you go. Leave some spare twine at the end to double it up and add a clasp.

The Classic Father’s Day Present: The Keychain

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It’s an oldy but a goody. And you can go so many ways with this. If you tried the Bicycle Chain Bracelet idea yourself and have a few links left over these bicycle chain keychains look super easy to make – once you’ve got the tough part of separating the links over with that is.

The nuts and bolts keychain idea is definitely one you could do last minute. We love this one that looks like a very excited little man, but we’ve seen versions that aren’t as specifically trying to look like anything other than nuts and bolts and they still look great as keychains. We reckon they’ve got the all important fiddle factor nailed too….as in he won’t be able to stop fiddling with it, which for a keychain is a good thing, as you are less likely to loose it!

Copper Piping

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Have we mentioned on the blog before how much we love copper and just about anything made out of copper piping? Well we do. And if manipulating said pipe is in your skill set, you are sorted for Father’s Day as we found no end of fabulous things you can make for him with it.

We fully admit to create any of these last minute you need to already know how to manipulate this and have the right tools, but if that’s you stop reading and get to work as these copper gifts are some of the best looking upcycled gifts we’ve found!

DIY Dad Appreciation Sign

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Got an old plank of wood? Some old nails? Some leftover yarn, twine or elastic bands? These nail wrapped plaques are super trendy and eye catching and super simple to do.

In fact all of these ideas are super simple, especially the ‘love’ sign. That one is literally just some manipulated wire coat hanger with yarn wrapped around it. You can make it say anything you want and wrap it with anything you want – twine, old fabric, strips of magazine, newspaper…you get the idea. That one is the definition of a last minute Father’s Day gift and a great one to do with the kids.

Mason Jar Money Boxes

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Are you the sort of person who collects old mason jars? Lots of upcyclers are. Then you’ve got the perfect starting off point for a totally personalised and totally last minute Father’s Day gift. Paint, decoupage or stencil your way to a fabulous gift. The only specialty item you will need that isn’t already in your craft cupboard is these mason jar money box lids (and some mod podge if you are going the decoupage route and you don’t already have some!).

Photo Frame

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Another last minute idea is to upcycle an old and boring photo frame you already have into something special. We love this jigsaw piece photo frame idea – again if your doing this one because he loves jigsaws, make sure you are using pieces from an old puzzle that he’s shoved in the corner because he’s already lost several pieces and not the one he’s halfway through! Just glue on the pieces in. your desired pattern, cover the. glass area and spray paint the colour of your choice. We think this silver one looks great and from a distance you’d think it was an actual silver frame!

The upcycled photo mount idea in the third photo above is also easy and very effective. And you can see from this example that it doesn’t even matter how clearly your kids hand and footprints turn out. It’s still a super cute gift!

Retro Cool

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Who doesn’t have some old cassette tapes, VHS or floppy discs shoved in a box somewhere. Lets face it you aren’t going to get the walkman or the video player out to watch or listen to these anytime soon, so why not celebrate the good old days with some retro cool storage gifts? Some strong double sided tape should do the trick for the cassettes and if he’s really not happy about you upcycling them you can take it apart!

Okay – gift sorted? Now what are you going to wrap it in? Check out these articles about how to create upcycled gift wrapping too!

• The Upcyclers Guide to Gift Wrapping
• 6 Ways to Reuse Packaging as Gift Wrap
• How to Upcycle a Shoe Box as a Gift Box

If you want to save these ideas for later don’t forget to Pin this post to your Father’s Day or Upcycled Gifts board!