Little Hiccups: Magic Blooming Flowers for Mother's Day

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Parabo Press and contains affiliate links.

Mother's Day is coming up in just over a month's time. Can you believe it? This year is flying away so fast!

In preparation for Mother's Day the kids and I have been working on some small, personalized gifts to send to their grandmothers back home in Australia. Because we need to post our gifts half way around the world, we're a little limited in what we can make; for example, painted flower pots and home baked cookies are not an option. Rather than seeing this as a hurdle, I like to take it as a creative challenge and come up with a fun idea for the kids to work on.

This year, our Mother's Day project actually comes courtesy of my kids. These magic blooming flowers are super simple to make but really make an impact. So what's magic about these flowers? Give them to a loved one with the petals folded in, pop them in some water and they magically bloom revealing a beautiful flower, perhaps with a hidden message inside! Ava and Lola have both made these at school before to celebrate Spring, and Lola often makes them at home. They're really so easy to make, and I've made it even easier for you with a printable template. Hooray for simple DIY projects!

Here's what you'll need:

Plain paper (we used regular printer paper, but any lightweight paper will work)

Template (you can find it here)

Markers, crayons or pencils

Scissors (curved nail scissors work best)

I printed out a template for each of the girls and they got to work with their markers, pencils and crayons decorating the flowers. They wrote sweet messages in the middle of some, drew smiley faces in others, and colored some in rainbow patterns. Once they were finished coloring the flowers we turned the page over and they colored the back in one color - although you could totally decorate the backs as ornate as you wish. Depending on the paper used, you should be able to see the template through the back. If not, sticking with one color and coloring the entire page is easiest.

Once the flowers are colored, use the curved scissors to cut them out. If you don't have curved scissors regular paper scissors will work too, but it will take a little longer to cut all of those round petals. Make sure to trim all the way between the petals right down to the circle in the middle.

Once the flowers are cut out fold the petals individually over the center of the flower. The order doesn't really matter too much, but we usually go around in a circle.

The magic blooming flowers are now ready to give to your loved one! Pop them inside a Mother's Day card with a note explaining what they are and send them off. I've made up a note that you can download here.

Let's take a look at how the magic blooming flowers work...

Fill a bowl or wide cup with water and place the magic blooming flower on top. Once the petals get wet they will magically open up and sit flat revealing a beautiful flower. How long they take to open up depends on the paper used. Our printer paper opened up in about 5 seconds. Thicker paper will take longer.

We've made these with markers, pencil and crayon in the past, and so far none of the color has run when wet which means they can be dried out and kept - or even fold back up to use again!

Now, flowers are perfect for Mother's Day, but we all know that Grandmothers really want pictures of their adorable grandchildren! Every year I make a small photo book or a photo card to send to the grandmothers for Mother's Day. This year is no different and thanks to Parabo Press I've made gorgeous folding accordion zines full of photos of the girls. I love that these zines are something a little different from the average photo book. They can be viewed like a fold out book or they can be displayed standing up on their own. Plus they're double sided so that's twice the photos you can include! The marble look cover is made that little more stylish with the addition of a gold foiled title. The packaging it comes in is just as pretty. No need for gift wrap!

For our accordion zines I wanted to stick with a floral theme to go with the magic blooming flowers that the girls made. We've had a lot of rainy Spring weather lately so a big floral photo shoot was out of the picture. Instead I decided to go with the old saying "April showers bring May flowers" and incorporate some fun puddle jumping shots of the kids. All this rain has got to be good for the flowers, right? We also stopped by a local florist for a few flower pics to round out the "May flowers" part of the saying.

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To guarantee delivery in time for Mother's Day make sure to get your order in by April 18th.