When searching for Mother's Day gift ideas this year, I came across two ideas that I really liked and decided to combine them. This created a 3 step art project that yielded a masterpiece of a gift.

Step One: The painting

I decided to try a new technique for the canvas  painting. While browsing Pinterest, I saw several pins of people using clothespins and cotton balls as paint brushes and thought I'd give it a go.

It was fantastic! The kiddos really enjoyed it because it was something new. I enjoyed watching them experiment with different ways to use the cotton balls to create different textures.

Some students stretched their cotton balls out to give their painting a more whispy feel.

Some liked the smooth feel of how it seemed to glide across the canvas.

And some experimented with spinning their clothespins to swirl the paint with the cotton ball.

What I didn't get a picture of was the ones who were bouncing their cotton balls on the canvas creating a very thick texture that came out brilliant!

Step Two: Blow a Kiss

For this step, I simply snapped a quick pic of the kiddos pretending to blow a kiss and I recorded their answers to the question “Why do you love your Momma?”

I then printed their pictures (I chose black and white but you could do color if you like) and cut them out. I also typed up their responses to the question in small print making each reason one line. I glued their pictures and words onto their canvas. Then it was time for step 3…

Step Three: The Glitter!

I read the book, “I Love You, Stinky Face” by Lisa McCourt. This book is all about a momma who loves her child so much she would do anything for him no matter if he was a dinosaur, an alligator, or a smelly skunk. It is really cute and the kids laugh and laugh at each page. More important to the project, however, is at one part in the book the momma blows a kiss to her son and it shows hearts being blown at him with sparkly stars in the background (the glitter!).

I showed the kiddos how to paint glue onto their canvas wherever they wanted glitter to be. Then sprinkled glitter on top and dusted off onto a paper plate to be reused.

Surprisingly, there was very little glitter spilled and the kids LOVED the process of working with glitter so responsibly.

They then glued on their hearts to complete their Mother's Day Masterpiece!

We will finish the project by wrapping the canvases in craft paper and letting them decorate the wrapping paper with marker drawings.

What is your favorite Mother's Day gift to create with your students?