Paper Plate May Flowers

This post is a bit late, but I think all of May is a good time for flower crafts, and these would make a cute Mother’s Day gift!

My niece, S, came over earlier this week and she is a crafty girly-girl, so I knew a flower craft would be perfect.  M is not afraid of a little pink either, so he got in on the action too. :)

The prep for this took some time, so I did it the previous evening.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Scrapbook paper cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips
• Paper plates with the center circle cut out.  Cut along the edge of the plate to create a flower shape, and do the same for the circle you cut out, making it a good inch smaller than it originally was (so there is space between it and the rest of the plate when you place it back in the center)
• Tape
• Glitter
• Glue
• Tissue paper cut into circles, about 1/2 inch bigger than the circle you cut out
• Paintbrushes
• A variety of items to use in making faces… we had pom-poms, buttons, craft eyes, and scrapbook paper cut into mouth shapes (half an oval)

Begin by taping the end of a strip of paper to the back of your paper plate rim.  Then wrap the strip around the plate, taping it again when you reach the other end. Do this again until your plate is wrapped as much as you like.  I set pieces of tape out for the kids so they could grab one when they needed it.  This part was definitely easier for the 5 year old than it was for the 3 year old.  But it was great practice for those fine motor skills!  (The idea for this part of our craft came from the May issue of High Five.)

Turn your wrapped flowers over and tape a tissue paper circle over the cut out center, so it looks like this from the front:   Then set it aside for later.

Next, mix your glitter and some of the glue together on a saucer.  Using the paintbrushes, brush the small flower with the glitter mixture until it is covered.  I put wax paper down for this part, so the flowers wouldn’t be glued to the table. 

Then, make your faces!   The glue already on the flowers should hold the buttons, etc, but if it doesn’t, just use a dot of glue where you need it.

Finally, tape your flower face to the tissue paper circle on the large flower.  We used double stick tape for this part.

Add some yarn to the back for hanging and  ta da:

Cute little flowers to hang in a window or wherever you need a little bit of happiness. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Homemade Foam Stamps

M loves those little capsules that have foam shapes in them.  I’m sure you know what I’m talking about – you put them in warm water and wait, oh, about an hour, for the capsule to dissolve and reveal what was all squished up inside.  They are a patience-practicing activity, although I’m not entirely convinced that the gratification of finally seeing *what it is* is really worth the amount of  patience spent, but I digress…

The truly irritating thing about these little guys is that once you know what they are… the fun is over.  They lie around the house making me crazy with their purposelessness.

The million or so peanut butter jar lids that I have don’t make me crazy, because I know sooner or later they will have a purpose. :)  

I tried gluing these little foam guys onto our saved lids with regular craft glue, but after it dried it peeled right off the plastic.  I would’ve tried super glue, but, no kidding, all 3 tubes of super glue that we have are glued shut.  I couldn’t budge them and gave up.  So, I ended up using mounting foam.  I got this in a strip, like a roll of tape, at Dollar Tree a few weeks ago.  It’s useful for all kinds of things.  I liked it for these stamps because it makes them stick up a little farther and makes it easier to just ink the shape instead of the whole lid (if that makes sense?).


We tried them out and they were a success!  M loved using them.

Of course cleaning up was the real test… we had used paint for stamping with them and I just gently washed them under running water, pressed the sponge down to get most of the water out, then let them dry.  They stayed put together very nicely!  $1.00 for a new set of stamps isn’t bad!


Have a beautiful day! :)