3 Mother’s Day Gifts from a Child’s Art

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This Mother’s Day gift might be a little messy in the making, but the finished project is clean and modern. Of course, that is essentially what it’s like being a mom, right? Each day involves taking the mess of life and making it beautiful.

3 Mother’s Day Gifts from a Child’s Art Piece

I want our home to be a beautiful space, but it must be functional and meaningful too. If you are trying to meld function and beauty, join me over at Craftivity Designs and share in this journey of creating a home. 

The functional and meaningful Mother’s Day gifts that I’m sharing today are right up my alley.

Do you have a lovely spring day in the forecast this week? Grab the kids and head outside to enjoy the sunshine and get a little messy.

I gave the kids an assortment of brushes, paints and card-stock from my craft stash and covered our patio table with craft paper to prep for the mess-making. Overloaded on craft supplies? Check out this fun, kid-friendly project that will utilize your craft stash too. 

What if your child isn’t that excited about painting? No worries. My little boy won’t paint for hours on end. Fortunately, only 1 or 2 paintings are required to complete each of these activities.

If you do have a budding Picasso on your hands, that’s great, too! The flexibility of these activities will allow you to mix and match your child’s creations!

In today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how to make 3 projects using your child’s artwork. The first step in each project is scanning the artwork and saving it to the computer. If you don’t own a scanner, take a photo of the artwork with a camera or smartphone instead.

As a side note, I’d completely recommend considering a scanner. When my son entered preschool, I began scanning his artwork into the computer and compiling it in personalized art books. This simple trick has reduced the amount of art we save (and store!), and yet we don’t feel like we are throwing away all of his creative works. Plus, it offers so many possibilities for more homemade projects like the 3 that I’m sharing today.

Project #1 & #3 use computer software. I chose to use Microsoft Word for the tutorial because so many people use it. However, there are plenty of other programs that would be great for this type of project. So feel free to use the program with which you are most familiar — and get creative!

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Project #1: Collage Art

1. Insert the scanned artwork into a document.

2. Set the photo in front of text.

3. Crop the portion of the image which you’d like to use for the collage. I chose the top corner which was my son’s painting of clouds and the sun.

4. Resize the image to slightly larger than the dimensions of your frame. In my case, it was a 5 x 7 frame, so I set the dimensions to 5.1 x 7.1.

Note: You may need to uncheck “Lock Aspect Ratio”

5. Print and trim the artwork for the frame.

6. Create the collage.

My baby girl lost interest in her painting quickly, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t use her artwork. Using a heart punch and glue, I cut three hearts from her painting and attached it to my son’s painting.

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Project #2: Pieced Art

1. Print several copies of each scanned painting.

2. Cut the printouts into pieces in order to create a geometrical design. I chose triangles for a mountain landscape.

3. Piece the cutouts on a paper background, using the frame as a guide for size. Tape or glue each piece to the paper background.

 

As a Mother’s Day gift, have the kids use paint colors that match mom’s home and decor tastes.

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Project #3: Greeting Card

1. Open this 4.25 x 5.5 greeting card template in Microsoft Word.

2. Insert the scanned artwork into a document.

 

3. Set the photo in front of text.

4. Resize the image to match the dimensions of the template.

Note: You may need to uncheck “Lock Aspect Ratio”

5. Place the image according to the template.

6. Insert a text box for each word you’d like to include.

7. Print, cut and fold the card.

This project offers so many possibilities. We chose “Love You Nana” and “Love You Grandma” for Mother’s Day cards, but wouldn’t it be fun to make a “Happy Birthday” set? My son would love sharing his artwork with friends at birthday parties. In fact, I’ve even added these to my Etsy shop so other moms can use them too!

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Skip the gift and greeting card aisles this Mother’s Day.

Instead, enjoy a beautiful day, let the kids be artistic and transform a messy project into something beautiful. The kids and I both love seeing their artwork displayed in our home, and I know that Grandma and Nana will treasure their greeting cards.

 

What could you create from your child’s handiwork?

My name is Lora Green and I blog at Craftivity Designs, where I document how we are Creating our Home. I believe that a home is about much more than design and decor — it should tell the story of a family. Our home should fit the needs of two small kids, a work at home mom and a youth pastor dad. I want it to be a beautiful space; but it must be functional and meaningful, too. If you are trying to meld function and beauty, join me over at Craftivity Designs and share in this journey of Creating a Home.

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