Thursday, March 3, 2016

Flower Craft for Spring

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Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
*Note:  The watermark on all the photos in this post refers to my previous blog which was named Mom is Forever.  All my former blog contents have been moved to this blog, Abundant Family Living.

Flower Craft for Spring


Select a Flower Pot

Painted flower pots are pretty. They are great for gift giving and they make great indoor or outdoor decorations. First, choose the right flower pot. Where will the pot go? Inside? Which room? On a table or on the floor? Will you need a large pot? A small one? Will you need a clay pot or a plastic one? Decide where it will go and then pick just the right pot. If you are painting a flower pot to give as a gift, it won’t matter. The person receiving it will love it and will find the perfect place for it.

My little daycare children painted small clay flower pots to give as gifts to their mothers for Mother’s Day. We used coffee filters to create pretty spring colored flowers. Here is what we did and you can do it too.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
Paint Your Pot

This project can be messy so make sure you (or in my case, the kids) wear old clothes. I allowed my preschoolers to paint their flower pots independently. I wanted it to be their work, not mine. If your kids have the skills, they can paint pretty pictures on their pots. They might paint flowers, butterflies, lady bugs, cars, trucks, tractors, grass, bugs, etc. Let them use their imaginations. If they don’t have the skills to paint pictures or emblems, it doesn’t matter. Let them free paint. My preschoolers chose to use solid colors. My only guideline was that they paint the whole pot. I wanted them to cover it up. Mostly, I wanted it to be their work. As a mother myself, I knew their mothers would appreciate it more if they did all the work.

The following pictures show you examples of their work.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
Coffee Filter Flowers

While your flower pots are drying, you can work on the coffee filter flowers. This can be done a couple of different ways.

Allow the kids to color the coffee filters with regular markers. Then, let them spray on water with a spray bottle. The colors will bleed together. It is fun to watch and it looks pretty when it’s done. Too much water will make the colors run together too much, resulting in a black or brown coffee filter flower. Spay on just enough to make the colors bleed a little bit.

*Don’t use permanent Sharpie markers for this. The colors won’t run together. We tried it once before and learned the hard way.

Let the kids paint the coffee filters with watercolor paints. The colors bleed while they paint. Then, just let it dry. This is what we did.

We painted 6 coffee filters for each flower pot.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
 Assemble the Flower Pots

While you are waiting on the coffee filter flowers to dry, you can assemble the flower pots. I purchased green Styrofoam balls from my local Michael’s store which were a perfect fit for our flower pots. I just stuck the Styrofoam balls into the pots and pressed down a little bit to make them a tight fit.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living



Secure the Flowers

We used wire wood picks to secure the coffee filter flowers into our pots. They have wire ties attached. I tied the coffee filters onto the stems with the wire. Another option is to use green pipe cleaners. You can twist one end of the pipe cleaner to secure the flower and then stick the other end into the Styrofoam ball. One more idea is to use real sticks. If you use sticks, you can secure the flowers to the stick using rubber bands or twistie ties. You can leave the sticks natural or let the kids paint them green.

The next photo demonstrates how I secured our coffee filter flowers. I grabbed the center of the coffee filter and folded it as shown. I placed the center at the wire end of the wooden stem and then twisted the wire around to secure the flower.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
"Plant" Your Flowers

Now, you are ready to “plant” your flowers. Just stick the stems into the Styrofoam balls. Press them down in there. I had to sort of hammer some of ours so that all the flowers were even around the pot.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living

Finish Your Project

After we got all our stems secured into our Styrofoam balls, we fluffed all our flowers. Here is our finished product. The only thing I added after the following photo are the words “Happy Mother’s Day 2015” on each pot. You can paint on a sentiment but I was short on time so I just wrote it on with a permanent Sharpie marker. Of course, you don’t have to write anything at all or you can write something else entirely depending on the purpose of the gift such as “Happy Birthday” or “Just Because.”

My daughter made one of these for me years ago and I still have it. As long as it is kept out of the sunlight, it shouldn’t fade. It will be a pretty keepsake for years to come.

Flower Craft for Spring
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
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You might also like this cute coffee filter flower wall hanging craft.
Coffee Filter Wall Hanging Flower Craft
Coffee Filter Wall Hanging Flower Craft


If He Had Not Come by Nan F. Weeks


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Recently, HarperCollins Publishing sent me two books to review here on Mom Is Forever.  One of those books was If He Had Not Come by Nan F. Weeks.  We are getting ready to enter the spring season here but I was still excited to read this new Christmas book.  I received the book in ebook format.

If He Had Not Come by Nan F. Weeks

Illustrated by Charles Jaskiewicz


If He Had Not Come is a children’s Christmas book.  Traditional Christmas stories tell the story of the birth of Jesus, but this is a different kind of Christmas story.  If He Had Not Come encourages children to think about what life might be like today if Jesus had never been born.  Bobby, the little boy in the story, wakes up one morning, expecting to enjoy his usual family Christmas morning traditions.  Instead, everything is different.  There are no family traditions.  Businesses that are usually closed for Christmas are open.  There is no church and the New Testament is missing from his Bible!  When Bobby asks questions, nobody has even heard of Christmas.  How can this be?

The message of this story is well written.  Children who read this book will realize the true  meaning of Christmas and what life would be like if Jesus had not come to earth.  After the story, there is a section called Interactive Topics for Families and Sunday School Teachers.  There is a series of questions for families to discuss together.  Discussing the answers to the questions will deepen the meaning of the story and build a foundation for life application.  After the Interactive topics section, families will find a section titled Going Deeper.  Here families will find further topics for discussion along with numerous scripture references.  The next section is the Gospel Message.  In this section, readers are led through the path to salvation.

I found this book thought-provoking not only for children but also for adults.  It has the feel of an old-time classic story that children will want to read year after year.

Get your copy of  If He Had Not Come here.

If He Had Not Come by Nan F. Weeks
This item is available here.
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7 Days of Awesome by Shawn Byous, Illustrated Colin Jack

7 Days of Awesome by Shawn Byous
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

7 Days of Awesome:  A Creation Story 


We were so excited to receive 7 Days of Awesome, a children’s book by Shawn Byous (Illustrated by Colin Jack) to review.  7 Days of Awesome takes children through the first 7 days of Creation.  Children learn what God created on each day of that first awesome week.  This book is most appropriate for children between the ages of 4 and 8, but younger and older children will enjoy it as well.

This book is absolutely delightful.  First and most importantly, it is Biblically accurate.  I personally checked it against Genesis chapter 1 and found it scripturally sound.  Children will learn the Creation story in a fun, entertaining, scripturally accurate way.  The story is told in a rhyming format.  It is easy to read.  The illustrations are just as awesome as the story.  Bright, colorful pages filled with fun characters help keep children focused.

7 Days of Awesome by Shawn Byous
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living
 I read 7 Days of Awesome with my in-home preschoolers and they loved it.  All their families attend church regularly and one child is the son of a local pastor.  The children were familiar with the creation story and loved the story as told in this book.  When I finished reading it with them, they wanted to sit together and look at it all by themselves.  They turned the pages and as they looked at the pictures, they talked amongst themselves about light and darkness, the earth and sky, space and stars, birds, fish, animals, and how God created them all.

I highly recommend this book for teaching children the creation story in a fun and accurate tale.

Get your copy here!  :)
7 Days of Awesome by Shawn Byous
This item is available here!

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