DIY Mother's Day Craft for Little Ones

Happy Friday everyone! As Mother's Day is quickly approaching, I know some of us are in need of a last minute gift idea for our moms. My wonderful cousin, Rachel, shared an awesome idea with me that she made for her Mother and Mother in Law. I have asked her to share her gift idea with us today! Take it away Rach!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I've never written anything for a blog before, and I am so excited and a tad bit honored to be asked by my sweet, talented cousin Katie to do this. I love this blog and the great ideas featured, and hope some of you find this one helpful, or at least a little inspirational.

This is a sweet little handprint of my 19 month old son's, that was turned into a 'lil chickadee in a nest. I decided to frame it in a cheap (but oh so cute!) shabby white frame from IKEA and write the little poem on the mat of the frame and use it for Mother's Day gifts for the grandparents. I wish I could take credit for coming up with this, but I basically searched "Mother's Day handprint gift ideas" and this was one of a gazillion that popped up. The lady used these to make cards, but I took it a step further. SUPER easy, which I love.

Supplies needed:

• Background paper (color of your choosing, I used beige for my momma and blue for my MIL to go with their decors)
• Paint for the handprint (again- choose your color, anything will work!)
• Yellow paint for beak
• Brown paper (you can use a grocery or lunch bag for this- use whatever you can, I found mine in our recycling bin)
• Frame (if you choose to frame it)
• Google-y eye - I didn't use this, I just drew the eye with a black marker

Here's how it is done:

1. Paint or place the hand in the paint to cover it (If you have a little one like me, I make a game out of painting his hand- this tickles him and he thinks it's fun, and I get better coverage)
2. Place hand on paper and press firmly (ideally his fingers should have been much closer together, but what are you going to do?;) NOTE: the thumb should be on the bottom, as it will be covered with the brown paper for the nest, your chickadee may face opposite of mine if you used a different hand)
3. Rinse the hand or use the opposite one to paint the pointer finger yellow and use as the beak
4. Rip brown paper into small-ish pieces and when the paint is dry glue them at the bottom to form a nest
5. When paint is dry, either draw an eye with a marker or glue a google-y eye on.
6. Voila- you're finished! Mine was all lopsided and not centered on the paper, but I just used the mat as an outline and cut it out for the frame and it worked great. The poem reads " I love you, you love me, I'll always be your chickadee." Precious!

Hope all of the moms reading this have a fabulous Mother's Day!