Mother's Day treasures! our GRAND ideas for 2026!
- 9 hours ago
- 8 min read
Monday, April 27, 2026
With Mother’s Day (in the USA)
only a few short weeks away,
we’re reminded of the special women in our lives that have helped shape us!
We’ve both had great role models and mentors in our lives
but none more so than our own mothers
and the ways they shared their faith and love with us, day in and day out!
We miss them every day!
What a blessing it was to call them mom!!
Of course, the day rarely goes by each year
without us recalling our own introduction to motherhood!
We were both so excited to celebrate our first Mother’s Day as a mom!
Look at those babies… and our little ones, too!
Laura’s Daughter J was only 3 days old!
Being mom to these loves has brought such joy to our lives!
And, these days, we get to experience Mother’s Day from a new vantage point!
This GRAND perspective is one we absolutely cherish!
Mother’s Day certainly provides a great opportunity for us
to take a walk down memory lane.
Yet, we both feel that this annual holiday is also a perfect time
to honor our own daughters…
The mothers of our sweet Littles!
Many of us know from experience…
Parenting is hard work!
Young parents need encouragement, love and a pat-on-the-back
to let them know that they are doing a great job handling it all!
After all, these are the ones
who have given us this precious role as GRAND that we treasure!
With that said, in today’s post we’re turning our attention to gift giving ideas
for Mother’s Day
with our own GRAND twist, that is!
We’ve always found so much joy in creating alongside Littles!
It’s something that comes naturally
after years spent crafting and making memories in kindergarten classrooms.
Mother’s Day feels like the perfect moment to bring out the supplies
and let small hands create something special!
As GRANDS, it’s especially fun to guide our Littles
in making thoughtful gifts for their moms…
Our daughters (and daughters-in-law, if we’re so lucky)!
Just as special is the time we get to spend together in the process!
These moments open the door for sweet conversations about all the ways moms care for their families, while also giving us a chance to share stories from when their parents were little. After all, what child doesn’t love hearing a funny—or slightly mischievous—story about their mom or dad growing up?
In all honesty, this time together
is the best kind of gift we could ever receive!
Today Laura is sharing three ideas that are new to our blog!
These are the gifts she made with her Little L last year
as a Mother’s Day gift for her mama!!
(We had to keep them a secret until the big day then, right???)
Whether you are looking for a gift for a mom, a GRAND, a teacher/caregiver
OR
another special someone, we have you covered!
Check out our ideas below!
DIY Garden Markers!
My oldest, Daughter J, loves to garden with her girls
so I got the idea in my head
that I wanted the Littles to create a gift that their mama could use.
(Little P had just turned one so she was more of an observer last year!)
Here’s what we came up with!
MATERIALS NEEDED
• paint sticks (from a paint store or I bought mine here)
• acrylic paints (I used this set)
• small wooden hearts (I ordered this set of 120 painted ones)
• paint pen (I used a gold one)
• paint brushes
• glue gun and glue sticks
• Mod Podge (I used the glossy kind)
• craft paper or newspaper to cover workspace
• paint shirt for Littles (an old T-shirt works well!)
DIRECTIONS
Before you begin, determine what plants/veggies will be planted in your garden. Little L and I had a chat about what vegetables they were planting in the garden - she and her mommy had had frequent conversations about it!
You will need one paint stick for each kind of plant and you will need to count out wooden hearts to make sure you have enough - you’ll need one for each letter of each plant/veggie you are making a marker for (i.e. You will need 7 wooden hearts for the word “peppers”.)
Also, before beginning, cover your work area in craft paper or newspaper for easy clean up, and, as needed, put your Little(s) in a paint shirt to protect clothing..
The beauty of this project is that your Littles can paint each paint stick however they want to. You can see that Little L (3 years old at the time) was having fun covering the paint stick with no specific plan in mind and no worries with how thick the paint went on either. Older Littles may have their own plan of how they want the sticks to look. Take the lead from your Littles, especially if they are older!
Little L painted all the sticks we needed. We let the sticks dry and then turned them over to paint the other side. Little L enjoyed painting to her heart’s content!
Our garden markers looked beautiful!
I had purchased wooden hearts that were already painted, which was well worth the money! Once the sticks were dry, we counted out how many hearts we needed for each stick (dependent on the name of the plant). I used a gold acrylic marker to write one letter on each heart. (I actually did this step while Little L was having her daily quiet time.)
Then, to involve Little L in this next step (gluing the hearts to the markers), I laid several lettered hearts on the table and told her what letter I needed next. She searched for each letter and handed it to me! Such a smart 3 year old! Once I had all the needed letters, I spaced the hearts out and glued them to the marker.
We repeated this process with all the markers!
As a final step, I sprayed a layer of Mod Podge on each garden marker. Once one side was dry, I repeated on the other side!
As you can see, I made a few extras…
The extras only had one heart but we came up with a plan for these.
Read on for that idea!
DIY Herb Markers!
My daughter always has several herbs she grows,
many of them in pots on the deck.
For these markers, we made a smaller version, using the same materials from above!
MATERIALS NEEDED
In addition to the acrylic paints, small wooden hearts, paint brushes, glue gun/glue sticks and Mod Podge described in the materials listed above, you’ll need the following for the Herb Markers.
• mini wooden spoons (i purchased these)
• acrylic paint pens (I already had this set)
• craft paper or newspaper to cover workspace
• paint shirt for Littles (an old T-shirt works well!)
DIRECTIONS
Again, before you begin, determine how many markers you will need. Also, cover your work space and provide a paint shirt for your Little(s), too!
Follow the same set up and directions in painting these smaller sticks (covering both sides with drying time allowed in between).
Meanwhile, I used acrylic paint pens to write the name of each herb on a wooden heart. We used several colors that matched the colors Little L painted with.
Little L enjoyed her job of choosing a painted spoon and a herb heart to go together. Then I glued the heart to the selected spoon/marker.
Once again, we sprayed each marker with Mod Podge, repeating the process on the back side, too.
These were meaningful gifts that were used all summer long
and were truly appreciated, too!!
Refrigerator Photo Frames!
I needed one more simple and quick idea last Mother's Day.
These would be a gift for a few of the special women in my Littles’ lives…
Other than their mama,
their other GRAND and, of course, we couldn’t forget the aunties/godmothers either!
This idea couldn’t have been easier!
MATERIALS NEEDED
• a favorite photo of your Littles (I printed a copy for each gift recipient)
• 4 x 6 magnetic photo sleeves (again, 1/gift recipient - here is what I used)
• Felt or Sticker Embellishments (I purchased this set of felt flowers)
• glue gun w/glue sticks (only needed if embellishments are not stickers)
DIRECTIONS
I mentioned that this was easy! Simply, slide the photo into the plastic/magnetic sleeve and then decorate! I backed a few photos with colored cardstock before sliding them into the sleeve.
Decorate as desired. Little L had fun choosing the colors and placing the flowers on the plastic once I’d added some glue.
Simple, quick and cute! My favorite kind of project!
Did we mention that our Mother’s Day Treasures posts
have become an annual tradition at Our Grand Lives?
Every year since we first began blogging
- 2023, 2024 and 2025 -
We’ve put together our collection of handmade Mother’s Day gift ideas
with a few of our favorite store bought ones included, too!
Feel free to tap on the links below if you find yourself wanting to learn more!
Mother’s Day Treasures! 2023 Edition!
In our 2023 post we shared a few favorite projects/gifts!
Grammy OR Mommy Bag!
Photo Flower Garden!
A Personalized Travel Mug!
Mother’s Day Treasures! 2024 Edition!
These were the two featured ideas in our 2024 post!
A Candid Photo Shoot for MOM!
A Fingerprint Bookmark!
Mother’s Day Treasures! 2025 Edition!
Then, last year, in our 2025 post, we highlighted these two ideas!
I Love You Flowers x 2!
A Fingerprint Flower Mug!
Whether homemade or purchased
the thought that goes in to giving a Mother’s Day gift or card
is what truly matters and means the most!
Of course, we’d LOVE to hear about your Mother’s Day gift ideas!
Do you have a special project you’ve made with Littles to celebrate
OR
is there a memorable one you received over the years?
Simply comment at the end of this post or email us directly at
Thanks, in advance, for sharing your ideas!
whenever and wherever you can!
You can find lots of great content there!
We'd love it if you'd share our site with others who might enjoy our content!
THANK YOU!
We hope you have a great start to your week!
We’ll be back later this week with another new post!
We hope you’ll come back then.
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We’re grateful for the opportunities we get
to support and encourage the young moms in our lives
and the amazing (and often challenging) job they are doing
as they raise their precious Littles!
And, of course, we adore our own present roles as
Grammy (Laurie) and Bacco (Laura)... our favorite job in the world!
While we know many of you, like us,
embrace Mother’s Day and all it brings,
we also know all too well
that for others, this day can be a difficult one…
For those of you grieving a loss or longing for motherhood or reconciliation,
please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers!
When we look back at our lives - as daughters, mothers and now GRANDS,
we are reminded of that popular saying from Gretchen Rubin…
The days are long but the years are short!
It’s so true!
And through it all, it’s the LOVE that is the constant!
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