My Last-Minute Mother’s Day Gift

My father scanned our family photos last year, and I’ve been dying to play around with them ever since. This image had lost a lot of it’s original color, but I had fun handpainting it back in. (Just for the record, I'm the cute one in the chair.)

1. I printed my scanned photo onto watercolor paper, using my Epson Photo 1440 printer. A high-resolution setting is best to get a nice, bright image.
2. I used Prismacolor® Watercolor pencils to add color to the picture edges. Try to match the colors and shapes that are started in the photo. Color can be added inside the picture as well, as I did with the sky and skin tones.
3. Brush the drawing with water to turn it into a painting.

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Mother’s Day “Pancake Recipe”

This is a compilation of what my 1st and 2nd grade students wrote today, when I asked them how they would make pancakes. The only thing is, they have no idea how cute their writing is!

1. Students glued a photo of pancakes to their paper (download here), and drew a fancy border around the outside.

2. The PANCAKE title was to be written in block letters. I drew a sample on the board for them to follow. The letters and border are colored in with pencil, preferably using colors already in the photo.

3. Following prompts such as “Mix _____ cups of ______. Add _________. Bake / cook for _____ minutes at __________ degrees”, students fill in their own answers. Or better yet, add some other steps. Be prepared to giggle at their responses!

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Metal Tooling Mother’s Day Card

Gold metal tooling is great material for making textured art. Add Sharpie markers and you have a very expensive looking Mother’s Day card.

1. Each student gets a 3" x 5" piece of gold tooling, and place it on a few layers of newspaper. They draw firmly with a dull pencil to engrave the image.

2. Sharpie markers are used to color it in.

3. The final art may be mounted on a 6" x 9" folded card using double-sided tape. I recommend a quality card stock because this card is a keeper.

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Mother’s Day Collage Card

This is a simple layout, but needs to be done neatly to make it look nice. My secret is to use glue sticks to make the tissue paper lay smooth and flat.

1. Students use scissors to cut out the flower and vase shapes from blue, green, pink and yellow tissue paper.
2. Glue is spread all over the front of a folded card and the tissue pieces are attached. Don’t worry about any excess glue as it will not be sticky when dry. To make all the edges lay flat, students gently rub a bit of glue over the top of each piece.

3. Messages are added in crayon on the front and inside the card.

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Tissue Paper Flowers for Mother’s Day

Need a pretty but inexpensive project for Mother’s Day? All you need is an old baby food jar, tissue paper, white glue and a couple of green pipe cleaners.

1. Tear blue tissue paper into small little strips. Make a 50/50 mix of white glue and water, brush on the outside of a baby food jar, and apply overlapping strips of tissue paper. Continue until the jar is covered. Brush a final layer of mixture over all to smooth the surface before it dries. Let dry.

2. My inspiration for the flowers comes from “Tissue Paper Flowers” by the editors of Klutz. Proportion of the flowers to the jar is important, so I’ve made a pattern that you can download HERE. You make a small green folded “nubs” on one ends of the pipecleaners, slide on two yellow circles, and two white star flowers. Use a small amount of clay or playdough inside the jar to support the stems.

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Mother’s Day Art Project

I’ve used this card for kinders for several years and I'm still surprised at how nice they look, especially when colored with bright patterns.
1. Start with large white construction paper (12" x 18") and cut it in half to make panels of 6" x 18". Fold the panels into thirds to make a card that measures 6" x 6". Arrange folds so that the card makes a “Z”. Cut lots of posterboard “M” and “O” block letters for the students to trace. To save time, I left the “O” without the center cut out, and asked the students to just draw their own.

2. The students are to center the letters in each panel, trace with a pencil, and then with a black marker. The students colored in a different pattern in each letter, and then different colors for the background.

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Hand-Colored Mother’s Day Card

If you would like to make a homemade Mother’s Day card, I’ve collected a bunch of decorative letters from clipartETC.com and arranged them on a jpeg file that you can just print and color.

1. Click on the image above to download my prepared jpeg file. Print on a sheet of heavy 8.5" x 11" paper with the landscape setting and all footers removed.

2. Use colored pencils to fill in the letters.

3. If you would like to make it into a card, tape to another paper and write a message inside.

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