I very shamelessly stole then modified this idea from my son’s preschool who sent a large canvas project home last year . You don’t have to make this a card, it would be precious framed as a gift for Mom or Grandma too!

1. Gather your materials. You will need 2 blank card or 2 large pieces of cardstock, a bath poof, plate, paint, double stick tape, contact paper, pen, scissors, crayons or colored pencils. As well as a picture of your child in profile.
2. Start by cutting out the picture of your child. Tip use sharp fine pointed scissors. I luckily had 2 photos on hand, this is not the first which when cut with my dull old scissors made my son look rather alien-esque. Nothing says Happy Mother’s Day like a card from your martian child .
3. Place on your contact paper and trace with your pen.
4. Cut out. Make sure you place the picture in the right direction, I had to do this twice because I wanted the profile facing right. See a trend? I was up too late watching the news the night before.
5. Peel the contact paper off the backing and place on card stock. Make sure to place it on the finished side , if it’s on the unfinished paper it may rip a little , it did for me, but I wasn’t going to have my daughter redo it , it looks ok but would have been better if I’d been paying closer attention or got more sleep.
6. Pop some paint on the plate, dip your bath poof in it…
7. And paint. She squished the poof in her hand for a good 3 minutes before attacking it. Yes it was messy. Unlike her brother she didn’t eat too much paint, bath poofs tend to elicit more touching with hands than tasting.
8. Let dry.
9. While it’s drying use another piece to make a mat , even though it’s behind it will look like a mat when it’s done. Color however you want, write words , whatever your child wants. The big guy put his playmobil away to come do the part his sister couldn’t . Although you could totally just add another color of paint to the plate and paint more. This was just a good way of making one craft with two siblings.
10. Remove the contact paper and cut the silhouette out in an oval when dry.
11. Tape to the mat using permanent double stick tape.
12. Trim and tape to the card.

Besides this wonderful card( or equally awesome kid made creations)  what do you hope you are given this Mother’s Day?

Year after year when you ask young kids what they want to make their moms for Mother’s Day they might say their favorite thing ( firetruck, superhero, princess…) but after some prodding you will probably hear “Flowers!” . So here are some of our favorite flower projects but if you want firetrucks, superheroes or princess crafts we have those too.

Pool Noodle Flowers - they look great for years not days!

Mother’s Day Cupcakes – fun and easy for kids to help decorate.

Even though this Poppy was made for Remembrance Day but it’s so pretty ( and easy to make) I included it.

These Newspaper Flowers would be a perfect addition to any green mama’s Mother’s Day card – just make them smaller and glue to a plain card or recycled paper.

These Family Flowers celebrate love and you could make them of  your mama’s kiddos if you want.

Give mom what she gives you every day - Bunches of Love!

Flowers are almost a requirement for Mother’s Day. With this fun craft you won’t have to worry about them not lasting.

You will need rubbing alcohol, food coloring, chenille stems, styrofoam ball (or floral arranging piece), paint, zipper sandwich bags, and Fiori style pasta – they look like little flowers.

Dye the pasta by adding 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol, 15 drops of food coloring, and pasta into a zipper bag. You can have your kids massage the bag and make sure the pasta gets coated really well.

I let the pasta sit in the food coloring for a few hours. Then I lined a cookie sheet with paper towels and placed the pasta on it to dry. I let the pasta dry overnight. It was the easiest way to make sure the kids didn’t mess with it and I could put it in a well ventilated area.

I while the kids kneaded the pasta, I cut the styrofoam balls in half and got some paint. I had them paint their half whatever color they wanted. They had a lot of fun. I let the paint dry overnight along with the pasta.

I cut the chenille stems in varying lengths. I had the kids thread the stem through the flower-shaped pasta piece. Only have the stem go through it by about an inch. Bend that end over and twist it to the longer part.

I gave each of the kids a bundle of stems and had them put the stems into the ball halves. The result was as individual as each of the children. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Now you have a gorgeous floral arrangement, centerpiece, desk decoration, or dresser ornament. And it will never wilt.

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One of the most common questions I get asked by readers is ” What do you do with all the art work?!” Which I usually answer back with ” Most gets recycled. ” which is true but with the amount we make I still have a lot that ends up on the fridge. I love using clips like this to hold art work and thought we could make one extra pretty and wrap it up for a great handmade Mother’s Day gift.  Although I would suggest this for 5 and up ( cutting foam is tricky) you could easily have the pieces  pre- cut and have younger children do it successfully too.  So make one of these, have your little Picasso paint a picture and send it off to Grandma for Mother’s Day.

1. Gather your materials. You will need 3 or more colors of foam sheets, some clothes pins, magnetic tape, scissors, a pen and glue.
2. Start by drawing your flower. Don’t worry about perfection this  will be the back anyway. Cut out.
3. Draw some leaves , cut out.
4. Using the flower shape, trace a larger flower in a different color.
5. Cut out and a middle of your flower as well.
6. Layer and glue together on the clothes pin. Let dry.
7. When dry glue the magnet on the other side of the clothes pin.  
8. Hang your beautiful art work with your beautiful art work !

Want more Mother’s Day Crafts? Need some Mom themed book recommendations?

Our complete Mother’s Day collection of crafts and book reviews

In the spirit of full disclosure these were actually made for my husband’s office, it’s his birthday today ( yay he’s older than me again) and he needed to take in treats. So I hit two birds with one stone and decided to make them mother’s day themed and make them with my little man. Kids love to help cook and bake and my main tips for a peaceful experience are, expect a mess, don’t worry about perfection and eat a healthy lunch before making them so when the sugar hits their belly it’s not as dramatic! We had fun writing out the letters and making shapes with the candy.

1. Gather your materials. You will need your favorite cupcake mix and icing or recipes. Also to make the flowers and letter designs some rope licorice, and pink round candies. 
2. Mix your cake – I have no pictures of this because I had everything laid out in bowls, the oil, water and eggs and my son was so helpful he through them all in. I usually pre crack the eggs into a bowl and let him dump them in when I am making something that egg shells are hard to fish out of.
3. Bake and cool your cupcakes.
4. While they cool tear the rope licorice apart into single strands.
5. Cut into smaller pieces you can make into petals 
6. When cupcakes are cool ice .
7. Make letters to spell out MOM on one cupcake each or..  put it on a single cupcake.
8. Make petals ( it’s easier to make them before adding it to the icing ) by pressing the ends tightly together.
9. Add to the cupcake
10. Add a candy middle.

Have fun however you make them . Oh and a tip that worked great for us this time. If you have a mini cupcake pan, put a few spoonfuls in that and let your child have a little cupcake before decorating the larger ones.  This totally satisfied my son and made me feel better about how much sugar he consumed.  I also had a mini one ( ok 2)and was able to leave the big ones alone !

Mama Books That Make Me Cry

Here are my top 3 books that require kleenex:

A Mama for Owen by Marion Dane Bauer makes me cry every time I read it, and not just because I am pregnant. It’s a true story about a baby Hippo who lost his mama in the Tsunami that so many other babies both creature  and human did . The story is one about friendship , about adoption and about love. See Owen the little Hippo finds Mzee a big old giant tortoise and even though they are different species, and Mzee is a boy, Owen treats him like his mama.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch is perhaps the classic tear jerking picture book. I read this for years and years to children and had no problem getting choked up, it never bothered me, then I gave birth and I can’t read it without sobbing. The premise is simple, a mom sings this simple song to her son as he grows ” I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as you’re living , my baby you’ll be.” until she can’t sing it anymore and it’s his turn. For days after I read this I tear up as I lay my son in bed. * Edited to add that many readers have commented that they do not like this book at all! What do you think? Leave a comment and tell us!

Hair for Mama by Kelly A. Tinkham is beautiful. The story is about a little boy who is desperate to find some hair for his mama who has lost hers to chemotherapy. Marcus wants mama to be in the family photo but she doesn’t want to be the way she looks. His mission comes to a climax when he shaves off all his own hair hoping to give it to his mama. When the barber sweeps it up with the other hair on the floor Marcus is heart broken and goes home in tears. I was sobbing reading this, I knew it was a story about a mom having cancer but the way the author wrote it , it was magical. The complex emotions this little boy felt for his mom and she for him, jumped off the page and you can’t help but cry. I wasn’t sad ,I was touched by the love and desire to fix his mom and make everything better, and his parents tenderness to his feelings. I can’t recommend this book more highly. I should note that this is not a book for toddlers, I would probably wait until a child is 4-5 before reading them this gem.