How to Plan Fun and Inexpensive Mother's Day Gifts

Looking for ways to have a meaningful Mother's Day with gifts that are easy to put together, and inexpensive?

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Time

1. GENERAL: Let's be realistic about this. Mothers always say they don't want anything or they just want sleep or breakfast in bed, but they usually do hope for an actual gift too! And the more meaningful, the better!

2. GET YOUR KIDS INVOLVED: The reason she is a mother is because of the children she has, of course. The more they are involved, the more meaning the gift will have. Think about their abilities. Can your child write? Draw? If they are too young to draw, they can do handprints or fingerprints at least right?

3. ART IDEAS: Some ideas - personalized apron, canvas bag, pillowcase, paper to frame, etc. These can be decorated by your child (if they can draw and/or write) or with your help (hand prints or finger prints). You can add in poems or quotations found online, etc. Fabric or crafts stores will have many ideas for things to personalize as well as selling fabric paints and stamps, etc.

4. BOOK IDEAS: Magnifying the idea of a card, what about a book? You can either take many sheets of paper, fold and bind together with ribbon or you can be more elaborate. What about punching holds at the top or the sides and using some jewelry or craft wire to make your own spiral-bound notebook? Then fill with your child's drawings, writings, or scribbles with your own funny interpretations. You can also come up with questions to interview your child about their mom: What does Mommy want to be when she grows up? What is her favorite color? What does she love the most about you?

5. PAMPERING IDEAS: Find her favorite spa, salon, or cosmetics counter and make up a coupon good for one (or many) trips there, a gift certificate to Sephora gives her many options, a gift basket from a bath and body store, a set of homemade coupons good for one backrub (from you or your child!) and footrub, cleaning the house for a week or a month, or what about a pedicure/manicure from you? Sure to bring out some laughs.

6. HIGH-TECH IDEAS: Does your child make funny goo-goo sounds, have funny answers to questions, sing funny songs? What about a CD of them for their mom to listen to? Use your mp3 recorder (a computer microphone may work as well) to record them, then burn to a CD. This will be a treasured keepsake! Use one of the many photos you have (digital or scanned in) to turn into a t-shirt, mug, mousepad, calendar, puzzle, etc. at one of the many online sites (see Resources below) that offer such services.

7. The options are endless! Look around at what makes up her daily life and think of ways to enhance it for her. In addition to making her breakfast, dessert, and all the meals in between she would love if you show that you appreciate all the things she does for you and her children!

Resources

• Snapfish for photo gifts

[georgelarson]

on 2/16/2009 A lot of good ideas for gifts. Thanks.