Buggy Mommy's Day Crafts

Ahhhh, nothing says "Happy Mother's Day" better than giving mom a nice, big...

Bug!  If you look closely, you'll see that Bubby is offering me a bug, in this pic from March of 2009(is this seriously not just the cutest thing you've seen all day? Oh my).  He knows what he's mama likes! 

What?!  Bugs are not number one on your "most wanted" gift list this year?  Well, maybe they will be after you see these cuties :)

Roger brought this cute ladybug home from preschool.  On the outside, it says:

This lucky little ladybug

is here today to say

And when you open the wings, which are cleverly attached with a brad, it reads:

I'm lucky to have a Mom like you---

Special in every way.

Awww!

Super easy, super cute, but just in case you're not up to making this yourself, I've created a free printable just for you!  With a cuter font.  And centered words.  Yay!

Just click here and print on red paper.  Have your child draw or paste some black dots on the second circle, then have them cut it out and in half. Use a brad to attach the wings.  You could even add some googly eyes.

This next project is the one we made for our Camp Scarlet mamas.

As you can see, it's a butterfly.  What you might not be able to see is the cute little poem, which reads:

This isn't just a butterfly, as you can plainly see.

I made it with my hands, which are a part of me.

It comes with lots of love especially to say

I hope you have a very Happy Mother's Day!

Love,

I really should have taken a picture of the one Pal made.  The trouble with letting the kids decide what colors of paint and papers to use is they usually don't make the choices I would have made.  Pal's came out beautifully, with a blue and green butterfly on a background of very subtle blue/green/purple butterflies.  But I digress...

Anyway!

First, fold a piece of cardstock in half width-wise.  Then trace your kid's hands like this (but don't cut it out yet!):

See how the fingers are held together, and the hands are overlapping?  The thumb on the hand that's on the right (which is actually Car's left hand...that's not confusing at all, is it?) was placed against the fold, and forms the lower body of the butterfly.  The thumb of the hand that's on the left was placed away from the fold a little bit and becomes the antennae.  Got it?

So now you've got something that looks a little like this (hmmm...our pictures seem to be going in reverse chronological order...)  You didn't cut yours out yet, did you?  Good.  Because this next step is going to be reeeeaaaaalllly messy if you already cut it out (as opposed to only slightly messy if you followed instructions).

So unfold the cardstock, and drip blobs or lines of paint on one half of the page.  When your half-page is sufficiently blobbed, carefully re-fold and press gently from the fold out to the edges.  Careful!--the paint will want to ooze out of the edges.

Then, carefully unfold and allow to dry.

{And now let's pause while I try to decide if I should go into my kitchen and do this again, by myself, at 11 p.m., so that I can take a picture to show you what it looks like at this point because I forgot to take any pictures when we were actually in the midst of the project.}

And...no.  You'll just have to use your imagination. 

Like magic, the entire page will be painted AND (get this) it's symmetrical!  Wowee!

So, once the paint is completely dry, refold the cardstock (whew, this is a lot of folding and unfolding and refolding), and cut along the hand outlines you drew waaaaaaay back at the beginning.

I think you can figure it out from here, right?  Make it look pretty.

You could modify the poem if you prefer footprint butterflies, like these:

Happy Mommy's Day, friends!