Have you ever thought to use the flowers you receive for Mother’s Day in a fun and creative way other than merely displaying them in your favorite vase.

This year why not incorporate those beautiful flowers into a fun craft you can do with your child? You can create a sweet flower wreath to display on a wall or hang on your front door.  You will need to assist young children, as we will be using a hot glue gun when assembling the
wreath.

This is an easy craft using things easily found around your home.

Materials Needed:

• Flowers
• Cardboard – I used a recycled cereal box. 
• Pencil or crayon to trace with.
• Scissors
• Any round household items you can use to trace circles.  You will need two different sizes to draw inner and outer circles for wreath.
• Glue – I used a hot glue gun for quick results.

 

 

 

Cut off flower stems.

 Trace a wreath shape onto your cardboard using two different sized round objects. I used a small plate and a cereal bowl.

 Use scissors to cut out your wreath base.

Apply  glue to your base in small sections and attach flowers. You can also add any extra adornments, like bits of lace or broken costume jewelry to jazz it up.

Once glue has dried use ribbon, twine or yarn to tie a loop onto your wreath.   Hang up your beautiful creation and enjoy! 

Here are some other ideas for using your Mother’s Day flowers in a craft sure to please mothers and children alike!

Fresh Flowers:

1. Make a lei, bracelets or crown of flowers in the traditional method of a flower chain.  You could also use those left over trash bag twisties or pipe cleaners to attach flowers together.
2. Glue a flower onto a piece of felt and attach to a pin or barrette.

Pressed Flowers:

Press flowers by carefully layering them between two pieces of paper or wax paper.  You may insert the layered flowers and paper into the pages of a book and then stack several  heavy books on top of the flowers or just lay them on a flat surface and stack the heavy books on top of the paper.  I have always used our encyclopedias because they are large and heavy, but of course you may use any books.  Just be sure there is plenty of weight to get the best results.  Leave undisturbed for a couple weeks.  Once the flowers have been pressed, you may use them in any of the following projects:

1. Create a flower journal using pretty paper and bits of ribbon or lace.
2. Attach to homemade cards
3. Use glue or Modge Podge to attach to jewelry boxes, candles, etc.

Dried flowers:

An easy way to dry flowers it to tie a string around the stems of the flowers or bouquet of flowers you wish to dry.  Hang them upside down in a warm, dry area for several weeks.  A closet is a good place to hang them so they are out of the way and remain undisturbed.  Here are a couple of  fun projects you can create using your dried flowers,

1. Create your own potpourri adding spices like cinnamon sticks or cloves and other botanicals such as seeds, bark or leaves.
2. Gather and arrange your dried flowers into a pretty bouquet and tie with a ribbon or lace.  Display in a pretty vase or on a shelf or bookcase.

Creating something new from your Mother’s Day Flowers is an opportunity to create not only a longer lasting gift, but everlasting memories.

Kids love to create — especially when they are making a special gift for someone that they love! Thankfully, you don’t need to spend a lot to get them supplies. Many great crafting supplies can be found in your house right now!

My daughter is already excited for Mother’s Day, and has been sneaking a wide variety of things into her room which leads me to believe that an awesome Mother’s Day card and/or gift is in the works.

In about a week or so she will be asking me to go “out” so that she can work without me seeing what she is up to. Dad will help, and it will be the perfect surprise

But, if the Dad in your house is anything like mine, you will have to point him in the right direction so he can find the craft supplies.

Here Are Some Of Our Favorites From Around The House:

• Buttons – For some reason, I keep all of those extra buttons that come with clothes. I put them all together in a drawer, then I usually totally forget about them. I recently dug them out and I was amazed by how many loose, random buttons I had for clothes that I no longer wear! My daughter was thrilled, and I could see her dreaming up tons of projects to make with these buttons. Buttons are perfect for crafting flowers and bracelets.

Your child can create a flower two ways – by gluing the buttons to papers in a flower design, or by getting three buttons in different sizes and stringing them together on the end of a green pipe cleaner, beginning with the largest button. Once you get all three on, loop the pipe cleaner over, and bring it back through the buttons, going through a new hole. Once all the way, twist the pipe cleaner together to create a stem.

• Glitter – My house is stocked with glitter! We have regular glitter, plus glitter glue and even glitter stickers. According to my daughter, you can NEVER have too much glitter!

• Old Magazines – If you are a magazine reader, don’t throw them out when you are done!! Save them for your child to use for craft projects. You can use magazines for paper mache or for creating colorful collages.

• Macaroni – There are so many things that can be created with different shaped macaroni noodles. Necklaces, pictures, garland, bracelets and more this is a cheap and versatile crafting material!

• String, Yarn, Embroidery Thread and Ribbon – I keep all types of string and ribbon that I receive for my kids to make projects with. They use them to make bracelets, as embellishments, and everything in between.

• Fabric Scraps – I have been known to save old shirts and skirts that I really love but no longer wear. I try to repurpose them as much as possible by using the fabric for new projects. I always end up with a decent amount of fabric scraps, and my daughter snatches them right up. She uses them for all types of project – making doll clothes, knot jewelry, gluing them to her pictures, and much more.

• Tin Foil – We have recently been using tin foil for a lot of projects. It is a fun material to add to projects because it is such a great texture and color. We have used it to cover cardboard, and even as a tool to paint and stamp with.

• Paper – We always have a large collection of paper products … notebooks, card stock, blank paper, lined paper, computer paper, tissue paper, and construction paper. My kids tend to prefer the computer paper because it is blank and easy for them to fold and cut. Tissue paper is great for creating pop-out projects, giving texture and adding color to cards and pictures.

• Crayons, Colored Pens and Pencils, and Markers – This one is pretty self explanatory, but you do need to have a supply of writing, drawing and coloring utensils

• Flour and Water – I am sure this one is a tiny bit confusing, but you need paste (glue) for so many projects, and I cannot tell you how many times I have run out of store bought half way through a making a paper projects! You can quickly and easily make paste out of flour and water. There is no exact recipe, you just make it as thick or as thin as you need by adding more or less water to your all purpose flour. Easy peasy paste!

What are some household items your kids like to use for craft projects?

My kids are both super creative. They love to make projects, paint and draw … anything that keeps both their hands and their imaginations busy. We are frequently pulling out our craft supplies and making fun, colorful messes while we create.

If your kids are anything like mine, you will know how much space craft supplies can take up and how expensive some of the materials can be. We don’t have lots of extra space (as we currently live in an apartment) and honestly, I don’t have extra cash to spend on super pricy materials. But that doesn’t hinder my kids crafting – we just get creative with things we already have.

Some of the best projects have been made with things that I have had laying around the house.

• Jewelry gift boxes
• Ribbon
• String
• Buttons
• Old Clothes
• Food (potatoes, apples, carrots, flour, pasta)
• Marbles
• Tin Foil
• Paper
• Stickers

All of these items are readily available here and they lend themselves to so many fabulous project!! You can easily make stamps for paint out of the potatoes and apples, and the carrots make a neat pattern if you use them to paint with (by rolling them around on the paper). The same is true of the marbles, and even tinfoil can be shaped and used so many ways — as a stamp, as a template, or even as your project base.

The great outdoors can also be the perfect place to find craft supplies! Rocks, leaves, sticks, acorns, and pine cones can all be used to create fun projects.

Easy Projects Using What You Have On Hand

Pasta Creations – Pasta can be used for SO much. You can string different shaped (uncooked) pasta together to create fun bracelets, necklaces and even decorative garland. Color your pasta with paint or markers, and you have a super colorful and unique accessory. My daughter also likes to make pictures with different shaped pieces of macaroni – she uses elbow noodles, wagon wheels and any other fun shapes I can find. We have even made sentences with alphabet noodles.

Paper Mache is another fun, easy, and super inexpensive project that you can make at home using anything that you have on had. Your paste is made out of flour and water, and you can literally use any type of paper available – computer paper, newspaper, magazines, tissue paper, wrapping paper … ever paper towels! Ultimate Paper Mache has two basic paste recipes (a cook and a no-cook version) and tons of project ideas.

Make a Rock Buddy! When I was little, we would go for long walks through the woods and down dirt paths. I would always take a bag to collect any goodies that I found, and I always seemed to focus on rocks (something my kids also do). Once I got home, I would clean up the rocks and paint them! I made lady bugs, smiley faces, letter rocks and rocks that just had pretty designs. They were fun and easy, and the perfect outdoor craft.

Salt Dough can be used for so many projects – you can harden your child’s creations for lasting keepsakes or gifts, or they can use it as play dough. Best of all, you only need three basic ingredients to make it – salt, flour and water!

What To Buy

There are a few items that you will have to head to the store for. But most these items are reusable, so they are worth the small investment.

• Paint Brushes – Pick up a package that has many different sized brushes, including a foam brush.

• Paint – If your kids are like mine and love to paint, then the larger bottles are probably your best bet. If you are just starting out, or thinking that you don’t want the mess of too much paint, start out with a smaller starter pack to see how it goes. When my daughter first started painting, she got into the paints by herself and painter her whole body, the kitchen table and the floor. I was VERY happy that it was only the small paint pots and not large bottles!

• Crayons, Markers and Colored Pencils – If you stock up around back to school time, you can pick up these items for less than a $1 a package. Crayons are even as low as $0.25 around this time, so stock up! You can do so much with crayons, that it is worth the small investment. And don’t throw away broken crayons – save them to melt and turn into candles or new, fun shaped crayons.

• Paper – It is inevitable that you will need a lot of paper. We keep sketch pads, computer paper, card stock in tons of colors, drawing paper, and construction paper on hand at all times.

• Scissors – I also pick up scissors at back to school time. I get two pairs for each of my kids because it is guaranteed that they will each loose a pair quickly. I also keep a larger pair that I use just for crafting with them – these scissors get very gunked up depending on what we are cutting and it is nice to have a dedicated pair.

• Glue and Tape – Same as before, stock up on these items right around back to school time for the best deal. Tape usually goes on sale right after Christmas to clear out some of the overstock that stores have.

• Plastic Bins – I find that it is easiest to craft when everything is in one place. I use plastic bins to store all of our supplies, and then I can quickly pull out what my kids want to create with. I have some that I keep under the bed, and others that are stored on a shelf, but having these craft boxes has saved me a lot of time and frustration searching for supplies.

Shop At Yard Sales And Thrift Stores

You can pick up great craft supplies for next to nothing. Some things to keep an eye out for are

• Fabric
• Greeting Cards
• Baskets
• Stamps
• Stickers
• Ribbon
• Yarn
• Embroidery Thread
• Beads
• Buttons
• Holiday Garlands
• Old Magazines
• Glitter
• Craft Sticks
• And anything else that jumps out to you!

Crafting with kids is so much fun! Take your kids with you to yard sales to look for items that inspire them. You may be amazed at what they pick out!

I am a planner by nature.  I have been known to start planning my child’s next birthday before I even get through her current birthday.  I’m so bad it has worn off on my 10 year old daughter.  She just turned 10 and she has already told me what she wants to do next year.  Let me tell you, the planning has really paid off though.  Every year I provide my children with a party they aren’t soon to forget and many of my friends come to me for party planning help to give their children that unforgettable birthday party.  I am going to share with you some of our favorite parties to date.

A Year In The Life Of Baby Party

The 1st birthday is a big deal.  I am not big on using a specific character theme for the 1st birthday.  One year olds don’t generally have a character preference yet.  It’s not really for the child, as she isn’t going to remember this day, and it’s more for the adults.  So I am all about creating tangible memories of the day for the child to look back on.  I missed the ball with my oldest daughter, but I went all out for my middle daughter.  I made this as an invitation for her…

That was the cover of the card.  Inside I wrote:

“It all began (insert date of birth and time here) when (insert child’s name here) came into the world.

We have watched her grow and change.  Shes gone from rolling to sitting to crawling to standing and almost walking.  Now it is time to get together and share in the joys of insert child’s name here 1st birthday.

On (insert date of party here) we will be having a birthday party at (insert time and location of party here).

(Everyone is asked to come ready to share a fond memory they have had with (insert child’s name here), or a piece of wisdom for her, or perhaps a touching poem you would like to share with her!)

Please come with plenty of memories and be prepared to share in a joyous event!”

I had created a scrapbook of her first year which all of the poems and wisdom went into along with notes from everyone who came.

For my son I did a slightly different twist on it.  We created a time capsule for him which we will open on his 16th birthday.  I asked all of the guests for the same things I asked for in my middle daughter’s invitation.  All of that went into the time capsule along with a few other things from his first year, including his DOC Band Helmet and his hospital bracelets.  And now two out of four of my children anyways will know exactly what was important to the ones who love them at that point in time of their lives.

Fairy Tea Party

Of course what little girl doesn’t love a tea party?  My middle daughter being a huge fan of Tinkerbell had to have a fairy tea party one year.  So for her 7th birthday we put together a tea party fit for a fairy.

Tea pot shaped invites:

I folded a piece of card stock in half and cut out the shape of a tea pot making sure not to cut along the fold.  On the front I wrote, “Come to a Fairytastic Tea”.  Inside was this cute little verse:

“Peek into the land of Fairytopia and what will you see?
A sparkly little fairy, flying amongst the trees.
Her name is insert child’s name here and she’s turning insert age here.
Please join us for a party,
Where there will be lots of food and tricks.
The good fairies there will help you earn your wings,
and we’ll play games together
and make pretty fairy things.
Hope you can join us!”

We had little tea sandwiches (PB&J cut up into small squares).  I had gone to Goodwill and found a nice set of china and a tea pot to use that I didn’t mind if it was dropped by accident.  We had iced tea to drink.  And no party I ever do is ever complete without a Pin the Tail on the Donkey sort of game.  This one was Pin the Wings on Tinkerbell.  I had actually used this Tinkerbell for two parties.  I drew Tinkerbell on a piece of poster board and created wings out of some craft paper and the children were blindfolded and sent on their way to pin the wings on Tinkerbell.

A Rockin’ Birthday Party

One of my oldest daughters favorite birthday parties to date was her rockin’ Hannah Montana party when she turned 10.  Hannah Montana was big 3 years ago.  Probably not so much now, but this party could easily be adjusted to feature whoever the popular artist of the time is.  Her invites were created to look like concert tickets:

A piece of card stock cut into the shape of a concert ticket and glitter glue made these the perfect invites for this party.  If you notice the section, row, and seat are all 10′s which represented it being her 10th birthday.

For food we did pizza rolls and other little appetizer things.  We rented a singing game for the Wii and the girls all got to sing Hannah Montana songs.  If you have a Karaoke machine that would work great too.  And the cake was probably the biggest deal of all.  A guitar shaped cake that I made with the Hannah Montana colors and the logo too.  It’s really one of my favorite cakes to date.  It looked amazing and I hated cutting into it.

A Halloween Theme Party

After having two April birthdays to plan for, having a fall birthday finally was a thrill for me.  My son’s birthday is the day after Halloween.  So when he turned 2 and Halloween fell on a Saturday I knew I had to do a Halloween party for him.  That was a blast and I can see  many more Halloween birthday parties for him.  Of course you don’t HAVE to have this party for a birthday, but for me it just made it more fun.

So the invites were made in the shape of a ghost.

Outside it said, “BOO YOU’RE INVITED”.

Inside it said, “Child’s name here is gonna be age here!  Come join us for a Boo-tastic good time!”

For food we did snacky things and to drink I made a witches brew out of sherbert and sprite.  Just a pint of your favorite sherbert and a bottle of sprite in a bowl with a serving spoon makes for the perfect foamy witches brew.

The major game was my spin on pin the tail on the donkey.  This year it was pin the mouth on the ghost.  A piece of poster board and some markers.  I drew the shape of a ghost and cut out black circles for the mouth.

For the cake I got a ghost shaped cake pan.  And then decorated it according to the instructions.  I went for a cute look since this was for my son’s 2nd birthday.  Perhaps if he were older I would have tried something a little creepier.

We invited everyone to wear their Halloween costumes as well.  My son was a prince that year for Halloween.  His sisters were princesses.

A Construction Party

Every little boy loves tools, right?  Or maybe it’s just mine.  He has been fascinated with tools.  Handy Manny was his favorite show last year so we went with that theme which was so much fun.  While a lot of it was centered around a TV program that might not be popular forever there were a lot of things which could be transformed to fit any construction theme party.

The best game of all was the beanbag toss.  Everyone loved it.  I made a large dump truck on a cardboard box.  I cut the window out and everyone got a chance to toss a beanbag into the window.  The dump truck was set up in my son’s room and played with daily after that for many months.  That’s how much fun it was.

We also had a game of Pin the Glove on Handy Manny.  I drew Handy Manny on poster board and made gloves out of card stock.  Of course if you weren’t going to have a Handy Manny themed party something else you could do is pin the tool belt on the handy man.  Or if you wanted to stick with trucks it could be pin the wheel on the truck.

For the cake we made an excavator cake.  Pound cake, a twinkie, twix, oreo cookie crumbs, some mini donuts, and some well placed twizzlers and other candy made for a really fun cake design.

Aren’t you ready to go digging just from looking at this cake?

Decorations were caution tape, balloons, and yellow and black streamers.

Mickey Mouse Party

Mickey Mouse is timeless.  I loved him as a child and now my son does too.  His birthday this year is one we won’t soon forget.  I hope it’s for the theme and not the start of a 3 day power outage in the middle of his party.  Even without power we managed to have a great party for him.

The games were a Mickey Mouse bean bag toss and pin the hat on Goofy.  On a cardboard box I painted Mickey Mouses face and cut out a hole for his mouth to create the bean bag toss game.  Again, this was a huge hit.  And for pin the hat on Goofy I drew Goofy on a piece of poster board and made his hat out of card stock.  It was so much fun, even in the dark.

For decorations we used basic colors like black, red, and green.  It was so much fun watching my son enjoy characters from my childhood.

Older Children Party Ideas

Now that my oldest two daughters are getting past the kid games and stuff I have had to revamp my birthday parties a little.  This year for my just turned 10 year old daughter we had a sleepover party.  For this I made invitations that were shaped like sleep masks.  Two pieces of felt cut and glued together with a cute ribbon attached and a tag with the party details written on it made for a cute invitation.

At the party we made our own pizzas, painted finger nails, decorated hair clips, and watched a movie.  The girls stayed up very late.  I had to wake them up the next morning for some pancakes for breakfast and to get their stuff together to go home.

My oldest turns 13 this year.  For her birthday we are taking her and a few of her friends to a PG-13 movie.  Why not?  It is after all her first chance to get into a PG-13 movie without her parents.  So for that one the invites were made to look like a movie ticket.  She will have her friends sleepover too.  I imagine they won’t be needing me to butt in too much into what they are doing.  So I haven’t planned many games or activities to do with them.  They’ll be happy to listen to music and play video games and read magazines all night I’m sure.

So these are some of our favorite birthday party ideas!  As long as I plan in advance I have no problem getting everything done that I want to for the special birthday party.  Even though my older two girls are getting beyond the pin the something on the something games they get right in there at the little ones birthdays.  It’s just something that has become such a part of our birthday parties for the kids.

As the children get older they get more and more involved in the planning of their party.  It is after all for them so it needs to be the party that they want.  You don’t need to spend a ton of money either to make amazing parties.  All of the party games I create are from stuff around the house and generally speaking for party decorations and food I don’t spend more than $100 to create a fun and memorable day for my children.