Homemade Birthday Gifts for Mom: Personalized Potted Lilac Gift

by Holly
(Washington)

For this homemade birthday gift idea, I was trying to think of a way to get my husband and kids involved in making a birthday gift for Mom/Grandma.

I thought it would mean more to my mother in law, if I could come up with something from all of us, and I knew it would bring my family greater joy in giving a gift they also had contributed to.

My mother in law loves flowers and I wanted to incorporate that as well. I went down to my local gardening center and picked out a medium to large pot with 4 sides, a beautiful flowering California lilac, and a bag of potting soil.

Since my gardening background is mainly in edibles and not flowers, I worked with the gardening staff to pick a plant that would be happy in the pot I chose. Since Mom is turning 80, I wanted to make sure it was an easy to care for plant that would be happy in the pot I had picked.

Then I went to the craft store and bought a bottle of metallic purple paint, metallic gold paint, some sharpie paint pens, some complementary beads for decorating the pot, and a couple bags of those flattened glass beads that you often see in flower vases.

Now that I have my supplies listed, I will break down my 8 steps.

1. Using the paints I'd chosen, I brushed one of these messages onto each of the 4 sides of my pot. 4 Fantastic Children, 6 Incredible Grandchildren, 8 Wonderful Great Grandchildren, 1 Amazing Lady.

2. Once it dried I sprayed it with a UV resistant clear acrylic coating to protect it.

3. The kids helped me glue onto the pot the complementing beads I'd purchased to give it that extra bit of sparkle.

4. Once the beads were secure, we planted the California lilac bush in the pot.

5. We sat down as a family and painted half the flattened glass beads metallic purple and the other half metallic gold. It took a couple coats to get the rich color I desired.

6. As we were painting together we talked about Mom/Grandma and her remarkable life. I had a notebook there and asked the family to describe her in as many one word answers as they could think of. It turned out to be a very fun family brainstorming/painting session!

7. Once the paint had dried, I neatly wrote each of those words onto one of the painted glass beads with the Sharpie paint pen.

8. Finally, once finished and dried, I asked the kids to please arrange them around the plant, alternating each color along the top outside edge of the pot.

It turned out beautiful! She absolutely loved it and felt very special reading all the customized beads, seeing herself through our eyes.

On our last visit, she had it placed by her bed, where she could pick up and read the beads often. My family loved being part of the creative process, giving them ownership and extra joy in giving it to her. And I loved that we were able to work together as a family to create a beautiful, personalized gift that made my mother in law feel very loved.

Search This Site!