Grandparent Gifts (Hint: Mother's Day is May 11th!)

Shopping for Grandma and Grandpa can be very tricky.  They are old enough to already own everything they need and probably most of what they want, as well.  Luckily, there is always one thing they don't already have: the latest, one-of-a-kind craft, made by you (and your kids)!

So once again BFBI has scoured the internet for the best ideas in hand-made grandparent gifts.  Enjoy!

Little Footie Flower Pot
Isn't this little pot cute?  Those precious little baby feet turned into butterfly wings are just so sweet!


I guess it was too cute, so I had to bring it down a notch.  These are my pots from start to finish:

Start with a paper plate full of paint, and a dollar store flower pot.

Add one small, happy child.

Put foot in paint.

Use brush to fill in missing spots. (warning: this tickles)

Press foot to pot.

Repeat with other foot (be sure to make feet face away from each other!)

Let children run around patio to get extra paint off.

Use a brush to add "body" to butterfly.

 Okay, some things I learned:
1. Either my kids are too big or my pots are too small, because they didn't quite fit how I'd hoped.
2. Too much paint makes for more of a blob than a butterfly.
3. It would have been good to have a picture handy of what I was trying to make, so I could look back at it as a reference instead of just guessing at what a butterfly should look like.
4. I am not an artist.




FALLING KIDS! Bookmark

This is a cool craft for grandmas and grandpas who don't need big junk cluttering their homes (give them little junk instead, right?).  Pictured below is the inspiration I found online.  Looks pretty fun.



Here is my creation:

I started with this picture of my kids all stacked up.

At some point I realized that if they were going to look like they were hanging onto a string, I'd have to show their feet.
In hindsight, I maybe should have had them lie down...

I printed out a couple copies of the photo, and then cut around the shape of the kids.

Then I turned the photo over and wrote a very heartfelt message.

Then I "laminated" them.

I taped a ribbon to the back, and voila! Pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

A few more things I learned:
1. Always use good tape.  The tape I used on this was terrible.  I used to keep a list of good and bad tape brands (because more expensive doesn't always mean better quality), but I lost my list and now I keep buying all the wrong tape.
2. The heartfelt message I wrote got covered up by the ribbon, so I'll need to tape a message over the ribbon next time.
3. I can make cool crafts and they will sometimes even turn out cute!


Happy Mother's Day.

Marcia