I Pretend to Be Crafty

I loved doing projects with my students when I was an elementary and middle school teacher.


But, I was AWFUL at coming up with ideas- but, that's what the internet is for. Oh, and Mailbox magazine- my personal fav when I was teaching.


I'm in awe of those of you who create such fabulous things and have etsy shops.


Me? I have to steal ideas from my boys' preschool teachers for even the simplest project. They came home with these projects last week:

Bear's footprints

Monkey's handprints

And I thought- HEY! We could totally do that at home for a Mother's Day gift. Because the grandmothers are hard to buy for. There's nothing they really need and they won't say what they want....plus, I don't have a money tree out back to be able to get them something super-expensive.


So, we try to come up with something that the kids can make for the grandmas.


Those of you who are actually crafty are probably laughing at this post- but remember that there are those of us who are craft-challenged. ;)


I decided to try a version of the footprint butterflies. Because I forgot about the handprint one...though now that I think about it, it's actually easier to control little feet than it is little hands.


Anyway, I got 3 12x16 canvases at Michaels at 40% off for $5.39 each: one for each of the grandmas and one for me.


And then, because I had no idea where our paint and paintbrushes were because we just moved this weekend and there are boxes everywhere, I bought a 6 pack of tempera paint for $4.99 and then a set of brushes for $5.99(knowing we could use these for other projects- but you want a fat one to paint your kids' feet).

Painted one of my boys' right foot first and put it down on the LEFT side of the canvas. Repeated for each canvas. Baby wipes cleaned up the paint very easily. Then, painted the left foot and put it down on the RIGHT side of the footprint that was already there.


Again, you crafty people are probably snickering, but for clueless crafters like me, I had to double-check that I was getting this right.


Oh, and you could probably test this on paper first, but I went straight for the canvas. But, it turned out fine.


Then, I painted a body in the middle- just green circles. Used a fine tip sharpie to draw the antennae.


No pics of the process because it was just me and the boys with their feet painted- no free hands for a camera, unless I wanted painted footprints all over the driveway. They probably would have come off pretty easily, but I didn't want to take that chance.


Here's one of the finished products: (not really sure why it's so dark)

So, that's what the grandmothers are getting for Mother's Day! If you have any ideas of what else I could do to make it look better, please share. And let me know what you are doing for Mother's Day presents!  You know, so my uncrafty self can steal your idea next year. ;)


Thank goodness for preschool teachers and their creative ideas and patience with painting the feet of a class of 3 and 4 year olds! You still have today and tomorrow for Teacher Appreciation Week, if you haven't done anything to thank your child's teacher yet!


I'm linking this to:








Today and tomorrow are the last two days for Bob 93.3's Baby Contest. No registration required to vote. Please help Mason win! One vote per computer every 24 hours. Thank you so much! Vote HERE