Mother's Day Flower Pot

Can you believe Mother's Day is already upon us?

I know I can't.

My kids are lucky enough to have both of their grandma's living in the same city as our family.  This makes it fun to do little gifts for the grandparents from their grandkids on Mother's Day and Father's Day.  Even if this just means a handmade card by the kids.

We haven't made the craft/gift yet for this year (I know I only have 2 days left!). I have the idea, but my mom reads this blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise (or disappoint if the idea doesn't pan out!)

I thought I would share a gift we made a few years ago from my daughter for each of her grandma's just in case you're looking for a last minute gift idea!

　

Isn't it cute?

This is my mom's, which has the name "Nonna" written on it. That is what she is called by the grandkids. My mother-in-law is "Nana". (Yes, sometimes this can get confusing!)

I don't have any step by step pictures since I made this 2 years ago. However it's pretty easy to explain:

What you'll need:

Colored paper (or you can just color white paper yourself!)

Green pipe cleaners

Pictures

Clay pot

Acrylic Paint

Ribbon

Pinto Beans (or something similar)

Mod Podge/Glue

What to do:

I took some different colored paper and had my daughter do some fabulous drawings on them. Then I cut the paper into tulip shapes (cut 2 shapes for each flower that you want for the end product).

I glued a green pipe cleaner in between 2 tulip shapes. On one of the tulips I glued a picture of my daughter.  I also added the date on the bottom of one of the flowers.  I like to do this to most gifts I make so that in years to come when your memory isn't as sharp, you can remember when the gift was made!

For the flower pot I just used some acrylic paint and painted "Nonna" (or "Nana" for the other one).  There is also a heart drawn on the other side that is not pictured.  I then glued some ribbon around the top edge in a coordinating color :)

I filled the pot with pinto beans for stability and stuck the flowers in the beans.

So simple!

My mom's still sits on her desk at work. And this is such an easy gift to add more "flowers" as the number of grandkids increases :)

　

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all mom's this weekend!

Non-Edible Cupcakes

If you're like me, you like to add a personal/creative touch to the gifts that you give.

I always try to buy off of a bride or mom-to-be's gift registry, (because I know that's what they want!) but I always try to do something a little "extra" to make the gift more special.

I just seems a little more personal than "Here - I know you already like this gift because you picked it out yourself!".

So, when I had a baby shower to go to for one of my dearest friends, I first took a quick look at her baby registry. Once I saw the registry, I knew JUST what I wanted to create, from a gift that she had already picked out herself!

She registered for these cute girly burp cloths:

{source: target.com}

I was able to turn this cute little pack of burp cloths, into an even cuter little batch of cupcakes!!

　

To be honest, I didn't time myself to see how long it took to package these up, but it was no time at all....maybe 15-20 minutes. Tops.  And that includes my amazing photography.

After I rolled the "cupcakes" and placed them in the jumbo cupcake liners, I clipped some little hair bows that I picked up at the store to toothpicks and inserted them as "cupcake toppers". I think that was my favorite part. Now we're just hoping this baby has some hair so she'll be able to use them :)

And isn't the presentation so much cuter than just picking it from the rack at the store and stuffing it into a bag?

I did tie the box with some multicolored grosgrain ribbon (in coordinating colors, of course), but forgot to take a picture of it. I added it to my gift bag, with a few other things for the mom-to-be.

I think they turned out super cute!

You can try this idea with numerous items that a mom-to-be might have on her registry, including washcloths, onesies, or even socks!

　

And of course, it goes along with the theme of my new hobby/business...don't you agree?!