Celebrate spring with simple holiday crafts

Make seasonal creations with your computer

By Anjali Kapoor

The arrival of spring not only brings warmer weather but also heralds the start of many celebrations. Commemorate the season with easy crafts you can make with your children.

Mother’s Day card

Personalize your Mother’s Day card with a few springtime images and thoughtful words. With a little help, children can get in on the fun, creating special treats for mom or a grandmother.

Purchase plain cardstock at an office supply store. Use Clip Art or scan in a great photo of your children to adorn the card front. Print the card and add a few embellishments, such as ribbon along the side or front of the card, or stickers. (If you prefer to work with a template, click on the Office Button in Word > New > Greeting Cards. Then select any style card, delete the text and images, and insert your own.)

Egg-cellent Easter decorations

Jazz up the traditional dyed Easter egg with stickers you make on the computer. This is an easy way for your children to personalize their eggs. Let them be creative and make Easter egg faces for each family member or friends.

Buy sticker paper for inkjet printers at a local office supply store. You can either cut out the shapes or images yourself from one large sticker sheet or purchase small, individual labels that easily peel off and fit any design. Choose Easter images such as bunnies and ducks or facial features from Clip Art to create an Easter egg face.

To dye the Easter eggs, use vegetable dyes that can be purchased at your local craft store. Or make your own dyes using beets (red), carrots (orange) and spinach (green).

Step 1: Dip the eggs in the vegetable dye container for three minutes or until you get the right colour.

Step 2: Print out stickers on your computer (no bigger than 1”x 1”). Then cut them out with scissors.

Step 3: When the dye is dry, affix stickers to the eggs.

Step 1: Immerse eggs in dye.

Step 2: Print and cut out stickers.

Step 3: Affix stickers to eggs.

Sensational seed packets

Seed packets make a great hostess or thank-you gift. Visit your local garden store for inspiration and customize them for each recipient (for example, tulips for your mom or herbs for a sister).

Step 1: Download our easy-to-use seed packet template in Word. You can use the blank template with a plain black font and print on colourful paper. (We used wallpaper pieces for a fun design.) Or, enhance your seed packets with photographs or Clip Art: a sunflower photo for sunflower seeds or a picture of a vegetable for vegetable seeds.

Step 2: Cut out packet, following the dark black lines. Fold on half-line and use craft glue to attach bottom and side flaps. Leave top flap open.

Step 3: Fill with seeds of your choice and glue down top flap.

Make a garden tag to accompany your seed packets, so your gift recipient can mark where the seeds are planted. Choose a corresponding image for the seed packet and print it out on regular cardstock. You can have the tags laminated at an office supply store to keep them safe from rain and dirt. Then glue or staple them onto tongue depressors, found at craft supply stores.

Step 1: Add images to template and print.

Step 2: Cut out seed packet and fold.

Step 3: Fill with seeds. Create garden tags.

Passover seder placemat

One of the high points of Passover (Pesach) — the Jewish festival of freedom — is the seder (the festive meal). It is celebrated in homes at the dinner hour. Since lots of family and friends gather for the meal, children may not always be able to see the seder plate on the table. Why not help your children create their own seder placemats to learn more about this holiday tradition?

During the seder, traditional and symbolic foods are eaten in a special order. A seder plate has six dishes to represent the six symbols of the Passover seder. Use Clip Art or scanned images to symbolize the six dishes of bitter herbs (maror), vegetables (karpas), bitter vegetable (chazeret), mixture of apple, nut, spice and wine (charoset), shankbone (zeroa) and egg (beitzah).

Print out the images and arrange them in a circle on a piece of brightly coloured paper. Glue the images to the paper and then laminate each placemat at your local office supply store. During the seder, use the placemat to explain the background of each dish and to tell the Passover story.

All styling and photography by Julie Stoyka of Zariel Creative