Quick and Easy Mother’s Day DIY Decorated Flower Pots

Here is a simple, quick, and adorable DIY Mother’s Day gift idea that works great in a small classroom setting: Custom decorated flower pots, personalized with photos.

Aren’t they adorable? 

It might be a bit much to try with a large class, but with some prepping ahead it worked out perfectly for our small preschool Children’s Church class. 

This project is a throwback to when our oldest three children were in elementary school! 

(Awwwww! My mama heart!)

The church we attended at the time had a Mother’s Day tradition we haven’t encountered anywhere else. In that church, women typically taught Children’s Church and worked in the nursery. (Nothing against men doing so, it’s just the way things worked out there at the time.)

However, on Mother’s day each year, men volunteered to serve in Children’s Church and the nursery so all of the women could be in the main service.

This particular year, my husband taught Children’s Church. He thought it would be nice to do a craft with the kids that would double as a Mother’s Day gift. After some brainstorming, this is what we came up with.*

He did most of the prep work the day before so that what actually had to be done in the short time with the kids was manageable. 

This lower level of involvement was about perfect for preschoolers. If you did this at home, or with older children, you could include the children in more of the process.

Some version of these would be a cute birthday gift, teacher appreciation gift, or any number of other variations. 

You could decorate any flower pot, empty or full. My husband chose these hanging pots because we thought it would be nice to give a plant the mothers could enjoy through the summer. 

Less than 10 mothers were represented by our small class, so that route wasn’t too expensive. For a larger class you might pick up empty pots from Dollar Tree. This project can accommodate a wide range of budgets and needs. 

Personalized Decorated Flower Pot Craft

Supplies Used:

• One 8″ hanging flower pot per mother (we bought impatiens)
• 2 pieces of card stock (any color, for templates)
• Construction paper and/or pretty scrapbook paper
• Photos of the children, taken ahead of time, printed so that each child’s face fits a 2 to 2.5″ circle
• Scissors
• Zip-close baggies
• White Glue 
• A hot glue gun and sticks
• Permanent marker
• Crayons or markers

Optional: 

• Acrylic paint (or leftover house or wall paint)
• Mod Podge

Prep ahead:

1) If desired, paint the exterior of the flower pots using acrylic paint of leftover house or wall paint. We used leftover interior latex. 

2) On the cardstock, print out or draw templates for three different flowers with 4″ diameter, and one or more flowers with 2″ diameter. Also make a template for a 2.5″ circle.

3) Using your flower templates, trace and cut out flowers. For each pot, you’ll need three 4″ flowers and five or six 2″ flowers. 

The children will decorate the 4″ flowers, so a plain color is probably best for them. The 2″ flowers look nice cut from plain or patterned paper.

4) Using your circle templates, trace and cut out circles of photos of each child. Also trace and cut out circles in a contrasting paper color for flowers that won’t have a photo.

5) Lay out a zip-close baggie for each child. Write the child’s name on it with a permanent marker. In each bag, place three 4″ flowers and three 2.5″ circles (either from that child’s photo or from paper). We made 2 extra baggies with plain paper circles in case visitors attended that day.

6) If you want to include a message, quote, or greeting on your gift, you could either type it up or handwrite it on pretty paper. 

We typed up Proverbs 31:28 and printed several copies on little ovals. We glued these to slightly larger ovals cut from contrasting scrapbook paper. 

You could use any number of quotes and messages. For Mother’s Day, something about blooming under mother’s care would be cute with the flowers.

7) Once the paint on the flower pots has dried, use a permanent marker (or paint pen) to draw stems and leaves around the perimeter of the pot. Draw three stems for the three 4″ flowers, and five or six stems for the 2″ flowers. 

Leave room for the message or quote you created in step 6, if you’re take that route!

8) Use a hot glue gun to attach the message and the 2″ flowers.

During class:

1) Have the children sit at a table or desk. 

2) Give each child the 4″ flowers from their baggie and crayons or markers. Allow the children to decorate their flowers however they please. 

3) Assist or supervise each child in gluing the photo and/or plain circles to the centers of their flowers. Set aside to dry.

4) While one teacher engages with the children, the other can use the hot glue gun to attach the three flowers to the flower pots.

Done! 

The children were so proud to hand the big, beautiful gifts to their mothers!

Note: If you were able to keep these overnight or if you were making them with your children at home, you could finish them with a couple coats of Mod Podge to help them to last longer in the humidity outside.

Ok, now I really want to go grab some hanging baskets for my front porch!!

*Side note: If you do this in a classroom for Mother’s Day, please be sensitive to the particular households who will be receiving these. Thankfully we had two-parent stable homes to work with, but that is not always the case. Just be aware and make adjustments accordingly – some families find Mothers Day and other holidays to be very painful.