Mother’s Day kind of snuck up on me this year. I think it was because Easter was so late. It was Easter, then Little Miss’s birthday and now WHAM, Mother’s Day is next Sunday.
Since Mother’s Day is this upcoming weekend, I have a week full of posts dedicated to the holiday and to mom. But we are going to start off the week with a craft to give mom or grandma or the lady who is the mom you never got to have. Whoever it is for, I know she’ll love it! Add a few fresh stems of her favorite flower and she’ll be thrilled!
Little Mister, Little Miss, and I made vases for their grandmas! I’ve mentioned before how much I love mason jars…
Well, that’s exactly what we used and it worked perfectly! Major plus was that everyone in the family (minus the dog, though we probably could’ve convinced him with a little effort) could participate! They were super easy, relatively mess-free, and very pretty when all was said and done.
Supplies:
- Mason jar
- Construction paper hearts
- Masking tape
- Acrylic paint
Directions:
1. First cut out the construction paper hearts. We planned on making 2 jars, so I folded the paper “hotdog” style and then “hamburger” style so that I could just cut half of a heart and it made 2 with no effort.
2. Tape the heart to the inside of the jar. You want to make sure the tape is only on one side of the heart, inside the edges (but as close to the edges as you can get). If tape goes outside the edge of the heart, it will disrupt the picture of the heart when the paper is removed.
3. Choose four colors for the jar. It’s important to use acrylic paints as these will not wash away when water is later added to the vase. I let the kids pick which colors they wanted to use.
4. Lay the jar on its side and add big blobs of paint inside the jar on the opposite side from the heart. I just did it in a line going up the side.
5. Close the jar and slowly start to roll and tap the paint around the side. Depending on how much paint you put in, you may need to stop in the middle, roll to one of the non-painted sides and add a little more paint. Honestly, we felt like this even worked better than putting more paint in at the beginning.
6. Roll and tap the jar until all edges of the heart are covered in paint and as much of the jar is painted as possible. Add a little more paint if necessary.
7. Open jar and lay on side to dry.
8. Once dry, carefully remove paper heart and tape.
To Cure Jars:
- Make sure that all layers of paint have dried prior to trying to cure the jars. This may take over 24 hours.
- Place jars in a cool oven. This is extremely important as the jars need to heat up gradually to avoid breakage.
- Set oven temperature to 350oF.
- Once temperature reaches 350oF, allow to bake for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, turn off your oven and allow to cool completely prior to removing the glass.
If you get paint on your hands or arms, Dawn dish soap works AMAZING WONDERS at removing the paint easily. And it’s safe for kiddos to wash their hands with. Other dish soaps probably work, too, this is just what we have.
I have also found that the brand Water Wipes works amazing at getting paint from hands, wood tables, and more as well as completely removing baby food from clothes without leaving a stain. I have no idea what kind of magic it has because it’s seriously 99% water, but whatever it is, it’s safe and effective.
Now you can add a few pretty flowers, a nice note (check out our printable tomorrow that you could add), and voila! You have a beautiful and unique Mother’s Day gift she is going to love to display.