Handmade Mother’s Day Card + gift idea

Mother’s Day is around the corner, and I’ve been thinking about what I will get my mom and other important “mothers” in my life this year. I’ve realized that my favorite gifts to receive on Mother’s Day (or any special occasion) are heart-felt, handwritten letters or cards from loved ones. Looking back, this was somewhat of a tradition in my family… my mom always stressed the importance of writing thank you notes, sending cards to grandparents, and encouraged us to write letters to cousins or other long-distance friends. She often left handwritten notes for me to find with a simple, “You know I love you.” Now, I try to do the same for my kids and husband to let them know I’m thinking of them.

So I’ve decided that the best gift I can give for Mother’s Day this year is a handmade card.

When I was trying to come up with a design for my card, I didn’t have much time left of my baby’s nap, so I needed something quick! I pulled up my Cricut Design Space and started looking through their image library, when I came across this design:

I loved it and knew this would be my card! The great thing about having access to all of these amazing designs is that someone else has already done all the hard work for you! I turned on my Cricut Explore Air, grabbed a 12×12 sheet of cream cardstock and placed it on a light grip cutting mat. I inserted this image into my blank canvas, duplicated it, and placed them on the right side of the sheet (so I could fold them after cutting to create the cards.)

I set my dial to “light cardstock” and hit go! I can’t believe how quickly and precisely it cut this intricate lettering. Here is what it looked like after the cut:

To create my cards, I cut the sheet of cardstock in half, then folded the cards to my desired width (4.5″ wide x 6″ high) and trimmed the excess. I added some beautiful floral paper to the back of the first card. (I glued the peek-a-boo paper directly to the back side of the cut out panel. That leaves the inside for you to write your message!) I love how you can see the pattern through the cut out words! For the second card, I wanted a little shine. I used a leftover scrap of gold mirror vinyl I had in my desk and it looks really cool! You could get a similar effect with gold mirrored paper or gold glitter cardstock.

 I added a simple gift of this eos hand lotion, to go along with the quote, “Full hands, full heart.”

I will add a handwritten note and give this gift to some of my girlfriends for Mother’s Day.

 What are your favorite handmade gifts to receive?

Linking up this post with some of our favorites:

*The Party Bunch

*Link Party Palooza

*Creative Collections