5 Handmade Gift Ideas For Mother’s Day

Posted by Guest on Apr 1, 2011 in News | 2 comments

The dog in the photo, and the fantastic instructional text below, belong to a lady called Carly. Carly is one of our guest bloggers this week, and she was kind enough to provide you all with some amazing ideas to treat your mum to this Mother’s Day…on a shoe string budget! Thanks Carly! And Archie!

Hi, I’m Carly, an avid blogger that tweets far too much. In my spare time I run a funky website about silicone bakeware and I look after my lovely Miniature Schnauzer, called Archie. I love cupcakes, baking, the Internet, SEO, online marketing, tulips, going for walks, the colour pink, fairy lights and cups of tea!

This Mother’s Day, are you looking for a gift that says:  “I love you very much mum, thank you for being so wonderful and will you carry on dog sitting/baby sitting/doing my washing for the foreseeable future?”, Yeah?

And, I presume you want something inexpensive too, that looks really exquisite?

Well, luckily, I’ve got a couple of ideas for you: five really easy gifts that you can make by hand.  They’re gifts that any mum would love to receive and they won’t cost you the earth either.

1. DIY Flower Arrangement

This DIY flower arrangement will look so pretty, but it’ll only take you a couple of minutes to put together.

You’ll need:

A watertight vintage-style biscuit or tea tin
Several single stem flowers
Ribbon and tag (optional)

You’ll be able to find a brand new vintage-style tea tin from any cookery or kitchen shop, as they’re very popular at the moment. However, you can always pick up an authentic vintage tin from eBay if you have time.

Simply stand your chosen stems up in the tin, taking care to ensure the arrangement looks full and blooming – and remember to give your flowers a bit of water to keep them alive!

Tie your ribbon and tag around the arrangement.

(This idea was adapted from Martha Stewart Weddings)

2. DIY window herb garden

This idea is perfect for any mother that enjoys cooking and, yet again, it is really quick and simple to put together.

You’ll need:

3 small pots
3 packs of herb seeds
Small pack of compost
A rectangular wooden box or tin
Sticks or labels for each plant
Ribbon and tags (optional)

If you’re good at DIY, knock together a small wooden box and decorate it to match your mother’s kitchen theme – or, find a nice rectangular tray or tin that will fit on the windowsill (many supermarkets and garden centres will stock these).

Fill the three pots with compost and plant the seeds.  If you’re running out of time or you’d like some fully grown plants, you can cheat and buy some that have already been planted for you!

Add your own special touch by making labels to help your mum identify each plant by painting and decorating unused ice-lolly sticks.

Arrange your pots in the container, and tie your ribbon and tag around your mum’s new window garden.

When searching for ideas, I found this DIY herb box online and immediately fell in love with the toothpick/card labels – they’re so pretty!

3.  Mother’s day cupcakes

If your mother has a sweet tooth and you have a penchant for baking, this gift is a MUST!

For cake decorating novices:

Simply bake a simple sponge recipe and pipe coloured icing on top of the cakes.  If you can’t pipe icing, simply smooth the icing over your cakes with a spatula.  Next, decorate your cakes with a flurry of readymade butterflies, flowers and glitter.

For baking pros:

If you’d like to bake something a little more special, try following one of these flower-themed cupcake tutorials.  In order of difficulty (easy – hard)

Simple daisy cupcake: This is quick to decorate, yet it looks very ‘springy’ and pretty fab
Cupcake pick cupcakes: The idea is you make four little chocolate cupcakes and decorate with these tiny little bouquets of flowers.  The decorations look very professional, yet the supplies can be picked up from craft shops and they only take a couple of minutes to put together
Rose basket cupcakes: When you look at this, it seems really complex, but if you buy the flowers premade, I think it’ll actually be easy once you’ve got the hang of the basket weave icing

4.  DIY box of chocolates:

Whip up a box of tasty chocolates by hand for your mum – but don’t worry you won’t need expert chocolate crafting skills!

You will need a bit of imagination and:

A fun-shaped silicone chocolate or silicone ice cube mould
Chocolate in your mum’s favourite flavour
Edible glitter
A cardboard gift box
Some tissue paper
Ribbon and a tag

Simply melt your chocolate in the microwave and then pour into the silicone moulds.  Leave the chocolate until it’s almost set and sprinkle your edible glitter on top.  Once your chocolate shapes have completely hardened, pop them out of the silicone mould.

Line your gift box with some tissue paper.  Place the chocolates in the box, separating each chocolate with more tissue paper to stop them moving around.  Finally tie the box with the ribbon and add your tag.

Simple, yet really pretty!

5. Favourite in a jar:

I really love this concept:  basically, you choose a cake, treat or meal that your Mum will like and artistically arrange all of the dried ingredients in a jar.  Then, you write the recipe on a label or tag.  Your mum can pour the ingredients out and make herself something tasty.

I think this gift will show your mum that you really know her, plus it’s very unique.

You will need:

A large glass jar
Clear food bags
Any dried ingredients that go into a good meal or dessert
Tag and ribbon
Paper to make a label & instructions
You can purchase large glass jars from several different shops, including TK Maxx and IKEA.

Find the recipe for your chosen dish and weigh out all of the dried ingredients, placing each in its own bag.  Arrange each bag nicely in the jar, carefully layering each bag on top of each other, but hiding the sealed edge.

On the jar’s label, write the name of the recipe, any fresh ingredients that need adding and the steps your mum should take.

Finally, tie the ribbon around the top of the jar and add your tag.

Here’s a really great example of a walnut brownie mix in a jar: this site is fab and you’ll find plenty of other ideas to try too!

Photography by Event Decorator, Lilley1, Sugar Daze, Annt189 , Dougle Moine and Lovelihood