Last Minute Mother's Day Gifts Round-up

If you are anything like me, you live with an illusion that there is an abundance of time before a holiday, or an important person's birthday. You have a ton of ideas up your sleeve about what you will do to celebrate that special day. And then, as if in a blink of an eye, that day is here, and your mountain of ideas have fallen to the wayside. You rush around haphazardly putting something together, but it is never as good as if you actually took the time and planned it out.
Luckily we have 2 days left before Mother's Day. I scoured the internet last night searching for the cream of the crop in terms of last minute creations. Here is what I found:

This handprint vase tutorial I found at Mama Mia's Heart here

Mother's Day Handprint Apron found at B-Inspired Mama here

"Hanging around" bookmark. After finding this tutorial on Pink and Green Mama's site here, I made some of my son for his grandfather's birthday (see our rendition, here). I think moms and grandmothers alike would like them as well, don't you?

I found this tutorial years ago via Crafty Crow. It is from Fun with Mama. Check it out here. When my son was only two years old I made a few for presents. Now that he is 4 I want to do it again!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there! Have fun! And don't forget, if you have to, it is completely OK to create these keepsakes for yourself with your child if nobody else is going to do it. These relics will create memories that you will cherish throughout your life; it is well worth the time and effort!

Make an Easter Bunny Card from child's hand tracing

Hand-drawn bunny face graces front of card

When the card is opened, the card reads "SOME BUNNY LOVES YOU!" How sweet is that?!

SOOOO, I was just informed that Easter is just around the corner! WOW! April 8th this year...Made me feel that I had to get on it! Good thing I had something already up my sleeve — an inadvertent craft I kind of stumbled upon weeks ago.

At the preschool one day actually last month, some of the kids were stamping away, exploring and discovering the ever-changing rubber stamp collection we have there.  I happened to look over at one of the children stamping and saw on his paper a cute little bunny picture and the words  "Some Bunny loves you". In a flash this bunny card craft came to me.

Materials:

• Construction paper in a light color
• pencil
• Googly eyes
• Markers
• Scissors 
• Glue

1. I traced the boy's left hand with a pencil (back of hand resting on page, palm facing ceiling) as he formed a peace sign (or "bunny ears"). Note The tracing was done on the right side of the construction paper so that I was able to fold paper as described in next step.
2. I then folded the paper like a card (keeping the outline of hand on the "front of the card"). I folded the paper so that the top left edge of his pointer finger and the left edge of his hand was represented by the fold. 
3. Then I cut the shape out through both layers of paper (cutting slightly inside hand tracing mark so the pencil marks can't be seen in final product). I had the boy glue googly eyes and draw a face on the front with markers
4. In the inside I had him stamp the bunny and sentiment. Because I realize that most people don't have this specific stamp, you could instead save the below image to your computer — control click (MAC) or right click (Windows) — reduce the size so it is about 1.5 inches across & print out. Then cut it out, and  glue to inside of card.
5. Voila! All done!

I thought to myself that I would have to remember this simple but precious craft come Easter time! It is sure to warm any recipient's heart :)

If you liked this post and you want to stay informed of more kid activity ideas I post or find around the blogosphere, remember to "like" me on my Facebook Page! Thank you! Have a wonderful day!

"I love you this much" Keepsake Valentine Card Idea

I thought a personalized Valentine featuring my son would be the perfect gift for his grandparents this year. There is a popular Valentine craft circulating Pinterest that features 2 paper hands with an accordian paper strip between them that says "I love you this much" (check out the craft here). Feeling inspired, I thought I would put my own twist on it, using a picture of my son — and a real banner made up of string and hearts.

Materials needed:

• camera, computer, printer
• Tacky glue
• string (for banner)
• scissors
• construction paper
• doilies
• pen or print-out of inscription
• mod podge and brush (optional)
• stickers & glitter (optional)

First I snapped a couple pictures of my little man posing for me stretching his arms out on each side of his body as far as he could. I then uploaded the pictures to my computer. I chose the best picture, opened it up in Photoshop, set the PPI to 300 (in Image Size) and traced and cut out the body with the lasso tool. I then created a new white fill layer and pasted on his cut-out body, turning off the visibility of the old layers. If you don't have PS you can print out the picture and cut around the body with scissors.
Print out the picture and cut it out, leaving a small white border around body. 

Next, I measured my child's "wingspan" on the paper (7 inches). I then typed up on my computer and printed out the phrase "I love you this much" making sure it measured the same. (I used mom's typewriter font) I typed the phrase multiple times just in case I messed up a letter.. (I'm not a big fan of having to go back and do things all over again!). I then very carefully cut each letter out in little heart shapes and lined them up in the order I wanted them.

I then flipped the entire phrase over horizontally (so that now the letters are lying face down, and the "I" letter is on the right side). I dabbed glue on the backside of each heart using scissors to press down the hearts so they "unstick" to the glue bottle tip (believe me you don't want to use your hand for this, it will get sticky and things will get messy real fast - take it from me I know!) Then I pressed the string down onto the glue, again using the scissors to push the string down into the glue. Leave enough tail on each side to tie into knot.

 
While the banner was left to dry, I then mounted and glued my son's body onto background paper that in some way represented "Valentine's Day" (I made 2 cards — one of the background papers was cut in a heart shape, the other one was a red piece of construction paper, see below). I then glued down the writing I wanted to include inside the card: "Happy Valentine's Day", and "Love, Carolyn and Bode". Of course you could handwrite whatever you want to say. Have your child decorate with stickers and glitter if you want. Put a layer of Mod Podge on if you like (if you don't know about Mod Podge you should! It is an incredible glue, sealer, and finish all in one. And it is water-based so pretty easy to clean up). I had my son help glue doilies to the back side to frame the cards. Doilies represent Valentine's Day to me (I seriously don't ever remember using them any other time other than this holiday) so I kind of feel they are an absolute must in Valentine crafting.

Card number one completed

After the card was decorated and mod podged, I attached the banner, tying knots at each end and putting a big glob of glue on each of the hands and pressing knots down. Don't worry the glue dries clear.

Banner up close

Card number two

We then sent off to grandparents! I think they will like this one!