Attention Procrastinating Dads! Mother's Day Gifts to Make With Your Kids...

 Dads! QUICK! Tomorrow is Mother's day and if you have little kids, you've GOT to help them make something for Mom!  Equally as great as a homemade gift is knowing that Daddy spent some time making stuff with the kids, and that you didn't FORGET! ;-)  What's that?  You mean you did almost forget?  No worries....it's not too late.  Here are the magical words any Mom would love to hear today, or any day for that matter: "Honey, let me watch the kids...why don't you go out shopping or get a cup of coffee by yourself for a couple hours." Sweet...major brownie points for Dad and time to scramble and pull together a homemade gift! See how nicely that works out for everyone?

Unique Baby Gear ideas

We moms love things that preserve our kids' little-ness...their little hands, their little toes...I remember the horror that gripped me when we brought Toby home from the hospital and I realized that they never made me any little footprints before we left.  With Sammy, they were sure to take a little set of prints, which they no longer put on birth certificates, but just for the new mom to put in the baby book.  What were they thinking?! Just because Toby's my 2nd in no way means I want to save his teeny footprints any less!! And how could I have forgotten!! I contemplated taking him back to the hospital just for footprints.  I literally cried over it.  Of course, I was all hormonal from just having a baby.  But, my wonderful husband ran right out to Babies-r-us and bought me a beautiful frame, complete with a footprint kit, and all was well and right with the world again!

Here are some ways you can utilize your kids' hands in a little Mother's Day card or gift.  We know that someday our kids will be big and have jobs and will order us our Mother's day gift from flowers.com.  But until then, we'd love to be showered with these cute, homemade, priceless gifts that we'll likely end up saving in shoe boxes in our closet for years to come.

This is such a cute idea to turn hand prints into lillies...one I haven't seen before anyway!

Here's another twist on the lilly.  This was posted as an Easter craft, but also would work for Mother's day.  You can get a little pin backer at the craft store and Mom can wear it!

Got some (washable) paint on hand? Try making these cute paintings with both hands AND feet!  (Warning: Do not leave a huge mess for Mom to clean up when she gets home.)

 This one is really pretty, and while it may be too intimidating for dads to do anything involving fabric, it's a sure winner for Mom!  You could also do this with paper, or even buy some flower stickers if you're not up to making these little 3D ones.  (or even get some silk flowers at the craft store)  Definitely a frame worthy idea!

I found this one on a Valentine's post, so you may want to tuck this one away until February.  But, it would work for Mother's day too.  I just liked this idea of forming a heart with two hands.

 Here's another cute idea to incorporate flowers without actually making the hand flowers.  Love it! Again, something you could do with silk flowers, flower shaped stickers, or even a flower shaped paper punch if you aren't up for cutting out flower shapes.  (Trying to make this easy for you, Dad!)

 Here are some more fun ideas to turn hand and foot prints into frame-able artwork, like this butterfly! These require a bit more artistic talent to pull off but are really cool.

Keep in mind that any of these hand print projects that involve paint could easily be done with fabric paint on something like an apron, a pillow, a tote bag, a shirt, a dish towel, whatever!


Last year I bought a stepping stone kit from a Michael's craft store and made a stone with each of my boys' footprints in it.  I plan to do one every year, and with the 40% off coupons I get from them, it's a great deal!  These have to dry for a while though, so if you're going to do this, start it NOW!(or save this one for next year) There are tons of styles out there and they come with everything you need.  Some even enable you to put photos in them.  I always see them with hands, but since it is a STEPPING stone, I thought it would be fun to do feet for mine.

Okay, so there you go, Dads, you have no excuses left!  Surely you already have the stuff in your house to make at least some of these ideas.  Now kick Mom out of the house and get dirty with your kiddo's! ;-)