Tuesday, May 6, 2014

May Crafts

Mother's Day Craft and Flower Friends

 

   

 Well, Mother's Day came up faster than I expected. In fact, I only realized it was this Sunday when my husband casually mentioned it to me while discussing our plans for the weekend. I guess after such a long winter, I don't realize how quickly the spring is flying by. But I'm very excited that Mother's Day is nearly here for two reasons:

1. We're that much closer to summer and all the fun summer activities.

 2. In my area of the world, we have to wait until after Mother's Day for there to be very little risk of a frost warning. And with this risk gone, it means I can plant my garden!

Unfortunately, since I didn't realize how soon this particular day was coming up, I'm a little behind on getting things ready for that day which includes the craft my girls make for Mother's Day gifts for their grandmothers. We were able to get them made today though - in plenty of time!

Mother's Day Craft




I have seen a few versions of the hand print flowers going around recently but I still wanted to make it for our craft this year. I have done this particular craft for the last 3 years for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, I don't have one from the first year (when I had an only child) but I do have last years: 

Hand Print Flowers from 2013 



This was made by my then 2 year old and 8 month old. Fun to see the difference that a year can make. 

This craft could not be simpler though and all you need is:

-white card stock
-washable, colorful paint
-paint brushes
-patient children (good luck!)

We actually decided to do this craft out doors (my first time ever doing finger painting outside) because the weather was gorgeous and we all really wanted to be outside. This could not have worked out more perfectly. While I was doing the hand prints with one child, the other was free to swing, slide or go in the sand box and I had no worries about paint getting on my floors, walls or furniture! 

I did my oldest child's [3.5 year old] hand prints first. Her's are the orange and purple prints.

Next, I did my toddler [20 month old]. Her's are the pink and blue prints. She was into it for about 3 minutes. She also liked to repeatedly place her hand on the same piece of paper which accounts for the random hand prints you see. But I actually think that adds to the fun of it. Because when you do a finger painting craft with a 1 and 3 year old - it's going to have smudges and imperfections - which makes it pretty great!


We made 4 altogether to give to all 3 grandmothers and 1 for me to keep. The last step is to add the green stems to each print. The finished product turned out pretty cute (the first is above and  the other is below). This craft took maybe 20 minutes or so total time, which is ideal for my girls.
I had to do a little cutting and pasting for the pink print on the left since that was our "practice" print and turned out great and Amelia gave up entirely by the 4th page.
Flower Friends


 
My daughter had mentioned to me on the way home from work the other day that she wanted to make more love bugs. I didn't have the supplies left for love bugs but I had purchased those 2 little items at the $1 bin at Target. I had no idea at the time what I was going to do with them but her request for love bugs got my wheel's turning. And I came up with Flower Friends! 





 

All you need for each flower for this craft: 
- 2 colored pipe cleaners (petals)
- 1 green pipe cleaner (stem)
- 1 pom pom
- set of googly eyes
- glue
-schissors

I had to do all the twisting of the pipe cleaners for this craft but we could all still sit together and discuss the colors while I did this. I twisted the pipe cleaner a little differently into the petal shapes for each flower. The point being, there is no one way to do this.
The fist pipe cleaner made 3 petals

Add the stem by wrapping around petal pipe cleaner
 
 Take the second pipe cleaner to make 2 more petals
There was a little excess pipe cleaner left over and this is where my big girl got to help. She first tried to cut the pipe cleaner with her preschool scissors but it just wasn't working. She was pretty thrilled to get to use a pair of mom's scissors, making it all the more fun!
 
Add a little glue to the center and place the pom pom

We also got to practice a little counting here while holding the pom pom in place. (I'm always trying to add a little learning in wherever I can!). Lasty, add the googly eyes to the pom pom. Repeat for desired quantity! 


The girls' faces lit up at the finished products. Amelia points and says a slurred version of, "flower." I snapped a few quick pictures and stuck them in the vase for now but I know that both the girls will be carrying these little flowers around with them until they fall apart. And, again, that's all part of the fun!
  
Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there!


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