Cheap But Chic: Gifts to Make Your Mom Smile
Mother’s day is springing up fast, here at cheap but chic, we have you covered with these few arts and crafts.
- Painted Tin Can
You will need the following to craft this according tohousebyhoff.com:
-Tin can
-Paint color of your choice
– Washi tapes
– Other supplies found around the house
Step 1: Paint your tin can the color of your choice and let it dry.
Step 2: Decorate your can with washi tapes.
Step 3: Do whatever else you would like to decorate your tin can with.

- Heart Painted Canvas according to care.com
To create this simple Mother’s Day gift, you will need:
- 3.5″ x 2.5″ Canvas
- Mini Art Easel
- Acrylic Paint or Stamp Pad
- Rub-on Letters
- Paint Brush
- Krylon Clear Acrylic Coating Spray
- Diaper Wipes
- Wax Paper
Step 1: Choose the colors of paint that you want to create the hearts with
Step 2: Paint the tip of your finger with a paintbrush
Step 3: Press your finger onto the canvas at a slight angle to make one half of a heart.
Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 to create three more hearts
Step 5: Let the paint dry
Step 6; Use the rub-on letters to place text onto the canvas
Step 7:Spray the canvas with an acrylic coating spray
Photo Courtesy Of care.com
3. Coupon Book for Mom
To make this craft you will need the following according to marthastewart.com:
- Scrapbook paper
- Craft knife
- Edge punch
- Craft glue
- Paper ribbon-style labels
- 1-inch circle hole punch
- Double-sided tape
- Foam dots
- Letter stickers
- Butterfly punch
Be sure to have adult supervision,
Step 1: Start with a 12-by-12-inch piece of scrapbook paper. Foldpaper in half, then in half again, and then in half again, ending up with a 3-by-6-inch folded piece.
Step 2: Open folded paper piece. With a craft knife, cut a slit along the center fold, leaving 3
Step3: inches at the top and bottom intact. Fold to make coupon book (see video, to be posted Monday, May 11, for demonstration of how to fold).
Step 4: Cut a 3-by-6-inch strip of scrapbook paper, and use border edge punch along edges. Use double-sided tape to adhere to front cover of coupon book.
Step 5: Embellish cover strip with letter stickers to say “MOM.”
Step 6: Punch a butterfly out of paper and fold in half. Put a dot of craft glue on the fold of the butterfly and adhere to the cover.
Step 7: Download and print coupon templates. Cut coupons to size. Attach ribbon-style label to blank space on coupon using double-sided tape. Write “Happy Mother’s Day” on label.
Step 8: Punch circles out of card stock, and write a message for Mom on them. Place foam dots on the back of the punched circles, and adhere them to blank circles on coupon template. Using double-sided tape, attach coupon to coupon book. Repeat for the number of coupon book pages desired.

- Momma Bird Cards
For this craft, you need to print out a downloadable file from larissaholland.com
Materials:
- Print out
- White Cardstock
- Colored cardstock
- Scissors
- A Pencil
- Gel Glue
- 1-Hole Punch (½ inch)
- 1-Hole Punch (¼ inch)
Here is how you make them:
Step 1: Download the PDF template and print it on heavy paper. Cut out the shapes. These will be your re-usable pattern pieces.
Step 2: Cut a letter size piece of white card stock in half to make two 5.5 x 8.5 inch pieces. Fold them each in half to create two blank cards.
Step 3: Cut two 5.25 x 4 inch colored pieces of cardstock for the card backgrounds and glue one each to the fronts of the blank cards, centered within the white margin.
Step 4: Trace the bird shapes lightly on colored card stock and cut them out (using small, sharp scissors or a craft knife will help). I like to reverse the pattern pieces and trace them on the back of the paper, so you don’t need to erase pesky pencil lines.
Step 5:Follow the build diagrams below to put them together. Use 1/16 inch thick pop dots to give each layer added dimension. For the smaller pieces, I put a blob of gel glue on a scrap piece of paper and use a toothpick to apply. The legs are tiny strips of white card stock.
Step 7: Use a small circle punch to cut a hole in black card stock. Then shift the punch over a bit to cut a slim crescent shape from the side of the hole you made to make the eyes for both birds. I used a 1/2 inch and a 1/4 inch punch.
Step 8: For the owl beaks, punch one 1/4 inch circle and one 1/2 inch circle. Trim off two edges of each circle to form a point.
Photo Courtesy of tipjunkie.com
5.Fingerprint Dandelion Craft
Here are the supplies you will need for this craft according to craftymorning.com:
- white/green/brown paint
- small paintbrush
- card stock paper
- a finger
Step 1: Start by dipping your finger into the brown paint and pushing it down on the paper. Then take a small paintbrush to draw the stem part.
Step 2: After the brown paint dries, dip your pinky finger in white paint and make a dandelion puff! You could also make it look like they’re blowing in the wind by having fingerprints trail off above them.

- Kangaroo Paper Craft
Here is what you will need according to daniellesplace.com:
- Cardstock
- Colored Pencils
- Scissors
- Stapler
- Magic Markers
- Paper
Step 1: Print the pattern onto tan cardstock
Step 2: Cut out the patterns and color them
Step 3: Write a message on the pocket and staple it onto the front of the mother
Step 4: Insert the joey into the pocket
Step 5: You can also write a note to your mother; fold it up, and place it into the pocket with the joey

7. Flower Petal Soap
To make this craft you will need these supplies according to activityvillage.co.uk:
- Soap compoun
- Essential oil
- Flower petals (we used chrysanthemums)
- Mould (we used a yogurt pot)
Step 1: Melt the soap compound according to the package instructions (we did it in 15 second bursts in the microwave). Stir in flower petals and a couple of drops of essential oil. Pour into the mould and leave until set.
Step 2: Placed in a piece of coloured cellophane and tied with ribbon this would make a lovely gift.
Photo Courtesy of activityvillage.co.uk.
Great article! I am going to try some of these.