Although I think mami should be celebrated every day, why not celebrate in an extra special way on that one day a year dedicated solely to her? How about making something just for her, something she can enjoy and admire for days, weeks even?!

I love flowers. I love to see them, grow them, cut them, receive them, and give them. So it should come to no surprise that flowers are what we plan to make this Mother’s Day for all the lovely mothers we know – tissue paper flowers to be exact. Tissue paper flowers are easy for little hands to make and lovely to look at. Besides, who doesn’t like to get flowers?

Would you like to learn how to make these tissue paper flowers?

DIY Tissue Paper Flowers Craft

Materials Needed:

• Tissue paper
• Pipe cleaners
• Washi tape
• Twigs
• Scissors

You can purchase all these materials (with the exception of the twigs) at Walmart.

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers for Mother’s Day:

Begin by cutting your leaves. You can cut several at the same time (I cut 6 at the same time). Then, with the yellow tissue, cut a thin strip, about 3 inches in width, and whatever length you choose. Do the same with the pink tissue (or any other color you choose), but this time it should double in thickness (about 6 inches) and keep the same length.

Make the flower center and petals following the steps in the photo below:

Add the stem and leaves following the steps in the photo below:

Make one or make a bunch of tissue paper flowers and gift to that special mami you know!

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, modernmami™ received compensation for the time and effort in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

All photos © Lisa Renata

We’ve been waiting for snow around our neck of the woods, but no luck. In fact, our winter so far has been a pretty mild one. The kids keep peeking out the window first thing in the morning in hopes of seeing a white covered yard. Nothing. So when I mentioned to them about creating a winter journal, where they could draw and write about anything they saw around this time of year, they were ecstatic. And why not make it a snowflake themed journal? After all, it seems those are the only snowflakes we’ll see around here for a while.

Would you like to make one with the kids? It’s pretty easy!

DIY Kid’s Craft: Winter Snowflake Journal

Materials needed:

• 1 marble composition book (any color, you’re going to cover it)
• 1 or 2 pieces of a wintery solid color cardstock (my girl used blue for her’s and my little guy used black)
• 2-3 empty toilet paper rolls
• Elmer’s glue
• Sharpie or pencil
• White washable tempera paint
• Paint brushes

I got all of my supplies at my local Walmart. (A little saving’s tip: During back to school sales, I like to pick up marble composition books by the bulk and have the kids use them throughout the year as different kinds of journals – school, travel, favorite quotes, seasonal, stamps, and sticker collections are just some ideas.)

How to make a kid’s winter journal:

1. Start by gluing the cardstock to the top of the marble composition book (see photo above). Make sure to flatten out all air bubbles. Then, open the notebook and follow the steps below. If you like, you can repeat the same steps for the back cover.

When you are done, it should look something like this:

2. Now, it’s time to prepare the snowflake stamps.

Using an empty toilet paper roll, draw lines (about an inch long) around one of the ends. Then cut and fold. Follow the steps below.

If you notice on the last photo above, we made two types of ends. The one on the left has a pointy end, and the one on the right, we left straight. Once you’ve completed these steps, make sure to also cut off every other strip. This will help the stamp look more like a snowflake and less like a flower.

3. Let’s decorate those journals!

Let your little ones have fun stamping away. It’s okay if the snowflakes aren’t perfect – what snowflake is? Then with the paint brush, have your kids paint some dots around the cover. Finally, add the word ‘Winter’ and the year.

DIY Winter Snowflake Journal for Mom

Materials needed:

• Moleskine journal
• White tempera paint or a white-out pen
• Thin-tip paint brush

How to make a winter journal for yourself:

As cute as the kids’ winter journals are, I wanted to make something a bit more sophisticated for me. I used a white-out pen to draw snowflakes of different sizes and shapes. I then wrote the word ‘Winter’ and the year. I love the contrast of the white and black. Don’t you?

Make sure to let the journals dry for about 24 hours before you head outdoors to explore your wintery surroundings and document it all.

Have fun!

Lisa Renata is a proud multicultural Latina of Mexican, German and Japanese descent. She and her husband of German, Scott-Irish descent are raising their two lovely kids bilingual and in a home full of diverse traditions. She holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology and is a certified Interpreter. She is also the creator of SaboraCajeta.com, where she shares her craft ideas, and her passion for sewing and photography. You can find Lisa occasionally sharing simple and fun crafts here on modernmami.com.

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, modernmami™ received compensation for the time and effort in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Crafts have never really been my thing. My mom used to create cute decorations for her house when I was younger, but I never joined her in doing so. It’s never been something I’ve had a talent for. Now that I have children, though, I wish I was more creative in that aspect and could come up with cute craft activities to do with the kids. Luckily, craft kits exist to help parents like me that come with all the necessary items and instructions to guide me in the creative process.

I take the opportunity to use craft kits together with my daughter, especially, since baby boy is typically too young for those types of crafts. She enjoys doing crafts together, so this way I’m able to enjoy such an activity with her, without becoming stressed that I don’t know what I’m doing. We recently had the chance to check out a few craft products sold at Walmart and test them out together; you can see them in the photo above.

My baby girl chose to complete the Made by Me Birdhouse first. We both enjoyed the ease of putting it together and she even commented it was cool we didn’t need any nails! All necessary items and tools came with the kit, which makes it so convenient for people like me that aren’t crafty. After quickly snapping the pieces in place, she began to paint her new birdhouse – don’t you love the vibrant colors she’s chosen so far?

We’re thinking of giving one of the items as a gift to one of her cousins because my daughter is sure she’ll love it. In fact, we often purchase craft or art kits when buying presents for birthdays and holidays – I love it because it’s so much better than accumulating big toys the kids will only play with for a bit! These particular kits are all really affordable too; the birdhouse we completed is only $9.97.

Have you ever tried a craft kit or do you typically create your own crafts?

Disclosure: modernmami.com and its owner, Melanie Edwards, is a member of the Walmart Moms program, resulting in compensation for this post.

Photos © modernmami

Fourth of July is just around the corner! If you’re looking for an easy and fun kids craft to help make your house festive for Independence Day, then look no more! Get your little ones ready to help you make this super easy 4th of July banner.

4th of July Banner Craft for Kids

All you need are three things and a lot of crafting enthusiasm from you and your little ones. Scrapbook paper, ribbon and a stapler (all of which you can find at your local Walmart) are all you need!  Okay, maybe a ruler and pencil too, but really that is all you need.  I promise.

Instructions:

First, pick out festive paper.  The typical colors for the 4th of July are red, white and blue, but why stop there?  You can add a bit of glam by adding a lighter shade of blue and some prints.  Once you’ve picked out your paper and ribbon, gather all the little helpers in the house to begin.

Start off by making a triangular template.  This will help guide the kids.  Once you’ve made the template (using steps one and two in the photo above), you can give it to your little one to begin tracing the triangles onto the scrapbook paper (steps three and four on photo).  I do advise, however, that the triangles are traced on the back of each paper that way the lines (or little mistakes little hands make) will not show up on the front of the banner.

Once your little one has traced all the triangles, have him or her cut them out.

Lay the cut triangles out on the floor and play around until you and/or your little one is satisfied with the order they will be in.  Then cut your ribbon.  We used about 4 yards of sky blue satin ribbon.

Begin to staple each triangle onto the ribbon by starting in the center and moving outwards.  Staple each triangle twice, one on each end.  When you add the following triangle, make sure that the tip of each end touch.  Continue until all triangles are stapled onto the ribbon. *Note: you can also sew a straight line over the ribbon and triangles if you choose to.

You are done!  Time to decorate and…

Happy Independence Day!

Lisa Renata is a proud multicultural Latina of Mexican, German and Japanese descent. She and her husband of German, Scott-Irish descent are raising their two lovely kids bilingual and in a home full of diverse traditions. She holds a degree in cultural Anthropology and is a certified Interpreter. She is also the creator of SaboraCajeta.com, where she shares her craft ideas, and her passion for sewing and photography.

Disclosure: ModernMami.com is a member of the Walmart Moms program, resulting in compensation for this post.

Kids’ imaginations are endless. One day they can be a super hero rescuing the world from evil, another day they can be a  dog looking for treats or a little petting. The joy of childhood. Simple, yet fun. Unfortunately, in today’s society there is little room left for imagination. Kids are constantly entertained by the television, video games or the ever endless amount of electronic toys they have. There really isn’t much room left for them to imagine or to create.

As parents we play a big part as to how much of our child’s imagination is active.  We can do this by limiting them to the amount of television they watch and video games they play, as well as by surrounding them with toys that allow for that creative part in them to come out and explore. Wooden blocks, costumes, puppets, paints, and crafts are just a few examples.

There have been more than enough studies done on the benefits of exposing children to the arts.  This does not mean you have to be a Picasso to be able to show your chiquito how to be creative.  Just give them a piece of blank paper, some crayons or markers (or if you’re a little more daring, paint) and listo -  set them free to just be.  The simplest crafts are usually the ones that allow for more imagination.

Crafts also need not be expensive.  Just look around at what you have at home.  In our home we keep a basket full of recyclable items that can be used for crafts.  Empty toilet paper rolls can become a telescope; empty egg cartons can become an art pallet or even a caterpillar. Gift wrap tissue paper saved from the trash, can be perfect to tear apart and glue on to construction paper, or it can be turned into flowers.  Empty cans like the chocomilk or oat meal ones, once decorated, can become great for storing colored pencils, crayons or other little special somethings.  If you have enough cans, they are also great to use for stacking and making towers.  Foil paper can become fun accessories for that special little princesa or a crown for the principe azul.  The possibilities are endless.  Take a step back and look around your house, you’ll be surprised as to all the great things you already have and can use.

Here is a simple kid’s craft to get you started.

How to Make a Treasure Box (Caja de Tesoros) – Kids Craft Activity

What you’ll need:

• An old shoe box (any size)
• Scraps of colored paper (I save all my scrapbook scraps, but you can also use colorful magazine pages, newspaper funnies or old gift wrap tissue.)
• A paint brush (or fingers)
• White glue (I like to water mine down for paper projects. Or you can make your own glue at home.  Here is a great easy recipe.)
• A cup or mug to use for the glue

Tear or cut all the paper scraps into small pieces.  They don’t need to be perfect, in fact, the more variety in sizes, the nicer the end result will look.  This is also really fun for the little ones to help you do.

Set the glue, pieces of scrap paper, and shoe box on the table.  Hand the paint brush to your little artist and let them start gluing the scraps of paper on to the box.  Guide them at first, by showing them how to brush the glue onto the box and then attach the paper.  It is okay if they overlap.  Set them free to do it all on their own.

Once your little artist is done and the glue is dry, cut any excess pieces of paper sticking out.

If your chiquito knows how to write, let him write his name or first initial and then glue it onto the box.

You are done!  A Caja de Tesoros to keep all those special little rocks, acorns, leaves, hotwheels, etc. that your chiquito finds.

All photos courtesy of Lisa Renata with the exception of top photo.