Crafting by not a very crafty mum - 60th Birthday Hug

I knew it was my father-in-law's birthday. No problem.

But...then I suddenly realised this was the big 6-0.

It then occurred to me, I probably ought to do something special. Doh!

I've been gearing up to try something with paint and throwing balls (Little E is still amazing at throwing), but I only had two weeks to go, so I pulled out an easy idea I'd been thinking about.

A nice big hug. :)

I used:

Some left over green card

Pritt stick

Pen

That's it!

Step 1

Chase child around the house, wrestle them to the ground and pin them while you frantically draw around their hands.

Or distract them with a YouTube video of diggers in my case...

I totally understand why Little E didn't cooperate. "I'm currently using my hands, thanks mum..." I have a wonderful child who wants to move, explore and be outside. I've excepted that simple pleasures such as drawing, puzzles and doing crafts with mum might be years away or might never happen. That is one reason why I chose this card. Once I had drawn round Little E's hands, his input was no longer required!

The result was pretty cute.

Step 2

Cut out a length of card for your "hug". I didn't measure. I had left over card and used the longest piece I had.

Step 3

Write your message. I wrote on the "top" hand, so it was more like opening a card and then a longer message as part of the hug. I added Little E's age to the back hand (19 months). I like to think these little hands might be little treasured mementos forever, like prints of his feet when he was tiny.

Step 4

Fold the card up, so it concertinas out. Then stick the hands down. I used pritt stick, but use whatever comes to hand (ha ha!)

It looks a lot more effective than I thought it would, so I'm very pleased. It also took about 10 minutes! Perfect for a slap dash mum like me.

I think I'll make a few more for birthdays, etc, as if think quite a few of my family would like to have a cut out of Little E's hands to keep.