The Big Hug Card

Living overseas forces me to be extra creative for birthdays and holidays.  This isn’t a bad thing – especially now that I have kids. I have a dear friend who is a shut-in.  Her birthday came up, and I decided it would be very special for my children to make her a birthday card. Homemade cards are truly the best! I know I save every homemade card I receive.

 

May I present to you: the Big Hug Card.

You can do this for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s day – _____(insert day here).  Really – this is a very versatile card.

I started out by painting my children’s palms with tempera paint.  This was tricky with my youngest who is nearly 2 and was throwing a royal fit at the time, but it did work out quite well in the end.  To save on space, I only did one palm print for each child.

 

After the palm prints {nearly} dried, I cut them out and glued them onto strips of accordion-folded paper.

 

Next I took a separate sheet of colored paper and simply wrote “Happy Birthday” on the front. I decorated it with little colored stars, but you can be as creative with this part as you’d like!  I wanted to save space for my kids to do some coloring on it after it was done.

 

On the inside I wrote “For Your Birthday We Decided To Give You a Giant Birthday HUG!”

 

Finally, I glued the hands on either side of the inside of the card (being careful to not allow the print to peek out of the edges of the card) and wrote their names and ages underneath.

Now – if your children are super-young like mine, you will do most of the work. After I took these pictures I let my nearly 4-year old decorate it with stickers and crayons.  If your children are older, you can have them cut out the hand prints and assemble the card themselves.  It may not look perfect, but it’s not the end result that matters with toddler crafts, it is the process. And I don’t know any grandma who wouldn’t treasure such a creation for the rest of her life!

 

The wonderful thing about the Big Hug Card is that it is not only homemade; it has the precious palm prints of your child on it – something your loved ones will treasure and look back on when your children are grown!

 

Rosilind is an American girl married to a Bosnian guy who lives in a small village just outside of Zagreb.  In 2012 her and her husband purchased their first home – a small renovation project with room enough for a garden.  They have two crazy boys 3 and under who are as opposite as boys can be. When Rosilind isn’t writing, she is dreaming up recipes and searching for ways to organize her home better.  Rosilind’s is the author of A Little R & R where she writes about missions, marriage and family, toddler activities, and her recipes.  She has authored three books and her articles are featured throughout the blogosphere.  Rosilind also serves a contributor for Missional Women and Simply Helping Him.