1992
Mother’s Day Crafts
May 1992

“Mother’s Day Crafts,” Friend, May 1992, 47

Mother’s Day Crafts

Fingerprint Flowers

By Clare Mishica

To make fingerprint flowers, you will need: old newspaper, food coloring, facial tissues, water, paper plates, white (writing) paper, and envelopes.

  1. Cover your work area with the newspapers. Put tissues on the paper plates and dampen them slightly. Add a drop or two of food coloring to each damp tissue. (Try a different color on each one.) To prevent the colors from running together, keep the tissues from touching each other.

  2. Make a few trial flowers on a scrap of paper by pressing a section of a dyed tissue onto the scrap with your fingertip. Start with the flower centers and work outward. Wash your hands between using different colors and allow each color to dry on the paper before adding the next color. Add more food coloring or water to the tissues if needed.

  3. When you are satisfied with your practice flowers, put down clean newspaper then make flowers along the edges of a sheet of the white paper, still being careful to let each color dry before continuing and to wash your hands between colors. Decorate the flap of an envelope to match.

  4. Write a special note to your mother or some other special person and enclose it in the envelope. Or decorate several sheets of paper and envelopes as notepaper and give them as a present.

Greenhouse

By Tami S. Mesenbourg

To make this fun and easy greenhouse for Mother’s Day, you will need: an empty clear-plastic two-liter soda bottle, an old plate or pie tin, scissors, small stones, dirt, and a small plant or a packet of seeds for small plants.

  1. Fill the empty soda bottle with hot water. Let it stand for five minutes, then empty out the water and peel off the label.

  2. Pull off, in one piece, the plastic coating around the bottom of the bottle to use as the base of the greenhouse.

  3. Place the base on the plate, put several small stones into the base for drainage.

  4. Remove the small plant from its container, place it on the stones, and pack dirt around it; or, fill the base 3/4 full with dirt and plant the seeds according to package directions. Water well.

  5. Cut off the top of the bottle 1/2″ (12.5 mm) above where it reaches its greatest diameter. Discard the top of the bottle.

  6. Cut five 1″ (2.5 cm) slits in the top of the dome. Place the dome over the base, fitting it inside the base.

  7. Put your finished greenhouse in a sunny area and watch your plants grow. Water the plants as needed.