Mother's Day Crafts - Painted pots

Ok, so I was even surprised at how much fun my kids had with this one. I do admit, we made one for my mother for mother's day, but the kids and I made a second one for me to keep.

Painted flower pots (2 ways)

1) Hand and Footprint designs

This one is great for little kids, birth to 4, or whenever their feet or hands are too big to fit well onto a pot.

Supplies:

Terracotta flower pot (

about $0.50 - $5 depending on size)

Acrylic paint

Paint brush

Paint pens

(optional)

Soil

Flower Seeds or plants

This one may take a little more work on your part. There are a few options, the easiest, but still super cute way is to paint a large heart on the pot. When dry paint your child's feet and "stamp" one on each side of the heart. Feel free to touch it up if they smeared a little (I've ended up with 6 toes before because my son wiggled).

If you are feeling a little more creative, you can transform the foot or hand prints into garden objects:

Foot - ladybug (stamp red foot, paint heel black, add dots and feet), pond, clouds.

Hand - flower, tree, bush

Just change the color paint to match whatever you are trying to make. You may want to sketch your ideas out first to see if you like it. The options are endless here. Plus if you do mess up or don't like how it turned out, just paint over it and re-stamp the kids hand or foot and start again.

Use the paint pen or small paint brush to add details, outline and add words. Around the top of the pot you can put little sayings such as "Planted with Love," "Mom's Garden" a line from a poem or a bible verse. I also suggest adding the child's name and age somewhere near the hand/foot print.

Depending on the age of your child, they can help you add the dirt and plants or seeds once the paint is dry.

2) Let the kids decorate.

This one is better suited for kids age 2 and up

Supplies:

Terracotta pot

Paint

Paint brushes and/or sponge stamps

Soil

Plants/seeds

Basically I just give the kids a small pot, a paper plate with paint and brushes and let them decorate it however they want. If you have young kids that aren't good painters yet, you can use sponge stamps or let them finger paint on it.

Again, once it's dry, let them add the dirt, plants/seeds and water. I did this craft with my 4 year old and one of her friends and they had a blast. We talked about how to mix the colors to make new colors (blue + red = purple, red + white = pink...), what plants need to help them grow (soil, water, sun). My daughter's friend said while we were planting that we were being farmers. They talked for days about how fun it is and love watching the seedlings grow.

Happy Mother's Day!