DIY gifts that the kiddos can make

 

I am uber-late on posting this.  The kiddos made Mother's Day gifts for Grandma this year. 

 

DIY personalized notepad- CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP

Miss-3yr.-old drew a picture on each side of a paper folded in half.  I made 25 copies of her masterpieces and cut the paper down the middle (thus making 50 half size sheets).  Then her and I sorted her pictures so that they alternated in a pile.  Finally I clamped the pile with binder clips (a piece of chipboard from an old notepad on the bottom) and painted RUBBER CEMENT on the top of the pile.  A few layers of cement and a clear coat of nail polish and voila!!! 50 sheet notepad.

I saw many other sites like justpeachy who did this but used padding compound for the adhesive, unfortunately I could only find padding glue online, and time was ticking.  This seemed to work just as well, and a TON cheaper.  You can make SEVERAL pads with a small container of $3 rubber cement.

 

finger print vase

Mr.-2yr.-old went for a the classic vase.  We used an old mason jar and a plethora of acrylic paints (lemontreedwelling used other paints).  He dipped his fingers into paint and placed them on the jar as I slowly turned it.  When he was all cleaned up I took two shades of green and with one connected all of his dots to the bottom of the jar and with the other filled in the void spaces with vegetation. 

After it was dry I lightly clear coated it with spray paint.  I am hoping that this will keep it from rubbing off or scratching.  The clear coat made it a little frosted looking.  I don't recommend too much scrubbing to clean.