Mother's Day Craft

One of my strategies for keeping a toddler occupied all day without relying heavily on TV (although I do resort to that when I'm desperate), is to provide her with crafts. Since Mother's Day is coming up on the 11th I decided to work on a craft for my mom. I wanted to do a card of some sort, but I wanted to do a jumbo card.  I used this sign that I saw on Pinterest as inspiration for the wording in the card, but I wanted something more specific for Mother's Day.  We only did the inside because it has to dry so here is the tutorial for that.

Supplies

Construction paper- you can use whatever size and color you want.

Mod Podge- Make sure its the type that dries clear (see picture below)

Glitter- Any color works, I chose silver.

Letter Stencils

Acrylic Paint- Any color you want for your scheme.

Paintbrushes- Make sure you vary the sizes if you choose to do different fonts like I did.

Step 1: you need to mix your mod podge and glitter together, this will be the base of your card.  The mod podge will dry clear but the glitter will stick so you'll have a nice glittery background.

This green bottle dries clear, and lasts a LONG time. I've had this bottle for like two years! Just make sure you keep it closed.

Step 2: Paint on your glitter mix.  Make sure you spread the glitter on as evenly as possible, if you put to much mod podge in one area the paper can break.

Make sure the glitter mixture dries completely before moving on to the next step. Mod Podge dries pretty quickly, our was dry by the time I was finished rinsing the paintbrushes.

Step 3: Get your paint and stencils and begin stenciling your wording on to the construction paper.

Acrylic paint works the best I think.  If your stencil sticks to your card, then the mod podge isn't dry enough so you need to wait a couple more minutes.

Once you've finished all of your stenciling you need to let the paint dry.  I usually wait until the next day for two reasons. 1) That way I can ensure all the paint is dry since I have a toddler that doesn't really know how to regulate the amount of paint she applies.  2) For most crafts the toddler attention span really doesn't provide for an extended break and then a return to the craft.  Here is the finished inside of our card.

I let Isabella pick the colors and in hind-sight it's kind of patriotic for Mother's Day but oh well, Grandma will LOVE a homemade gift from her granddaughter.  For the non-block letters I hand-over-hand guided Isabella in the spelling because I wanted those words to stand out.  It was a little difficult to make the words clear doing it that way but I think it adds to the effect and shows that she made it and not just me.  I think tomorrow I'm going to use some edging scissors (I don't know if that's what they're called, but they're the scissors that are made to cute the edges of paper in designs) to cut the edges of the paper to give it a nicer look.  I'm also trying to think up a cover for the card as well.