I've been in the habit for the past two years (as long as I've been a mother) of having my daughter participate -- in whatever ways she's been able -- in creating a gift for the special moms in our family. There are four that we honor each year: her two grandmas, her great-grandma, and her biological mom. (Check out my mommy blog for more if that last one threw you for a loop! :)
I love having something for each of these special moms, and I especially love that my daughter has a part in whatever we do for them. It's nothing "amazing," but it's from her, and that makes it amazing.
This is the project we completed (times four) this year. Plan ahead with this one! We worked on it a little at a time over the course of about a week.
PHASE ONE -- You will need:
- Watercolors
- Paper
Let your little one paint, paint, paint to their heart's content!
This was my girl's first experience with watercolors, and she L-O-V-E-D it.
My wish-I-had-thought-of-that-sooner tip? Use a clean medicine dropper to add just a tiny amount of water to each paint tin. This eliminates the need for a cup of water (if you don't mind the color mixing, which at two, is inevitable anyway) -- and the equally inevitable spillage.
Allow the masterpieces to dry. :)
When dry, cut flower shapes out of the painted papers. I used a cookie cutter, because as I've said, I'm not an artist in any way, shape, or form. If you have even a SHRED more artistic ability than I, you could very likely manage without tracing. :)
PHASE TWO -- You will need:
- Paint samples
- Scrap cardboard (poster board, cardstock, construction paper... it would all work. You're just looking for something a bit thicker than regular paper.)
- Glue
Cut up some paint samples.
And have your flowers cut out and ready.
I used a scrap of cardboard I had to draw these little flower pot shapes. Yes, I actually drew these myself! Be proud! :)
Lay out some of the paint sample squares/shapes for your child to choose from...
...and have them glue the squares onto the "flower pot" to create a "mosaic" of sorts. Allow to dry. You might want to put a heavy book on top of these as well, if you're bothered by the paint samples curling up.
PHASE THREE (I told you it was a long project!) -- You will need:
- Colorful paper
- Green pipe cleaners
- Glue
- Scissors
- Your pre-assembled flowers and flower pots
Cut the pipe cleaners to whatever length you want the flower stems to be and glue onto the colorful paper.
Glue flowers on the stems. Silly me... I thought this was the bottom of the flower, but my daughter decided that it was the top. Heh.
Add as many flowers as you like...
...and then glue the flower pot to the bottom of the stems.
Here's her finished projects! A "quick craft" it's not, but they're cute and something totally different from what we've done before. I mean, really... how many handprint molds can one person have? :)
I tried to snap a few pictures of her holding each one of these for each of the recipients. And, I might have mentioned... she's two. I really wish Tylenol hadn't recalled all their products last week, because I was sorely needing some medication after that experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment