Coloring for Mothers

Mother's Day is fast approaching! Less than a week away now. My daughter put these two coloring sheets together for me.

You can feel free to use the coloring pages for your own PERSONAL use.  But please be kind and do not claim these pictures as your own or offer them for downloads.  I don't appreciate them being copied and put on other websites for download.

I Love You, Mom ... Fill in the Blank Book

This is a little late for Mother's Day, but still a perfect gift to give to mom any time of year. A long time ago I bought my mother a fill in the blank keepsake book to pass down to me. It's full of things that happened during life and prompts to share stories. This book is a similar idea, however it's a gift for YOU to GIVE to Mom.

I partnered with my daughter, and we came up with a sweet printable together. This was no easy feat. I had to do a lot of brainstorming, and I even cheated a little and Googled a few lines to finish for the book. I had so much fun with this project that I decided I'm going to make one for fathers, daughters, sons, husband, wife, grandparents, etc. You can check back here later for more fill in the blank books!

You can download the full Mom Fill in the Blank PDF file here or you can scroll down and pick and choose which pages you want to print. I tried to make a lot! I'll come up with some more for the new books, and probably repeat some of these for the new books.

I printed the pages on the BACK side of letter size scrapbook paper. You could print it on solid colored paper, but I wanted some fun prints for the extra pages to scrapbook photos of me and mom through the years. You could also print these pages double sided so your book is a smaller thickness.

My daughter drew several corner designs for these pages. We've already been brainstorming and starting on the corners for the other books. For boys we have some outer space corners, and a cute train to go along the top and bottom.

After you print the pages out, you will want to cut each page in half on the horizontal line and assemble in whatever order you would like.

To bind the book, you could staple in the middle. Or you could cut the book again down the vertical line and pile the pages on top of each other. I opted for something a little different. Whenever I bind pages together, I like to use my sewing machine. My sewing machine can handle quite a few papers, and it seems a little more professional to me than staples. You could use colored thread. I just went for white this time. If I make another I might use a color thread, or I might print the cover on some colored card stock.

You can print wallet size photos to add on the scrapbook paper!

You can feel free to use the pages for your own PERSONAL use.  But please be kind and do not claim these pictures as your own or offer them for downloads.  Feel free to mix and match between books. Use whatever you like, throw away what you don't like.

I made a blank page, so you can personalize it however you see fit. Or leave it out if you don't have any ideas you want to put down. 

I'm sure Mom will love the book! It might even bring a few happy tears!

Mother's Day Coloring Pages

Mother's Day is fast approaching! Less than a week away now. Today I spent a little bit of my free time making some fun coloring sheets to share with you.

You can feel free to use the coloring pages for your own PERSONAL use.  But please be kind and do not claim these pictures as your own or offer them for downloads.  It makes me sad to see my pictures on a coloring page website run by someone else.

When my kids were young, I got a worksheet filled out by them. It was good for some laughs and made a special keepsake. It's always interesting to hear how your children think about you, and what things they notice. I know when my son was in elementary school he listed that my hobby was vacuuming the house! Haha... if only I enjoyed this task as much as he thought!

I know not every mother looks the same, so I've also included a worksheet that your child can draw a picture of mom!

Another opportunity for your child to draw a picture of mom!

Father's Day Coloring Pages

MORE Father's Day Coloring Pages

Fill in the Blank Father's Day Worksheets

For the older kids and adults, why not make a Fill in the Blank Book for Mom. This is the perfect keepsake that Mom will read over and over again, year after year.

Awhile back I posted several of these I love you pictures that my daughter drew. I thought it would be pretty to add mom to a couple of them for Mother's day. They are also quite pretty all on their own too.

For the mom who is like royalty, you can add her name to the banner on the castle...

I Love You

For several years my family has been involved in child sponsorship. Child sponsorship is a type of ministry in which a charitable organization associates a donor sponsor with a particular child. The money can go towards the child's food, home life, school books, medications, and many more things. There are some really good child sponsorship organizations out there, World Vision and Compassion International are just a couple. Throughout the years we have sponsored several different kids. Already we have had one of our children graduate from the program where the need was no longer necessary. This was incredibly difficult to say goodbye, as we write letters to each other several times a year. You get to know the kids very well through the written word and photos. 

Through another organization, Hope Generation, we have grown to love a child who I am very proud to call my daughter. This child sponsorship program is EXTRA SPECIAL and holds my heart! Hope Generation has a child sponsorship program which allows you to partner with a child from the Home of Hope orphanage in Bangladesh. This orphanage provides a home for children without parents or children whose guardian can no longer care for them. The goal is not simply to rescue. They provide a beautiful home, Godly mentors, nutrition and medical aid, a full English education, life skills and, most importantly, an environment where they can know and grow in God. Currently, the Home of Hope has over 100 children.  Sponsoring a child through Hope Generation lets you be a part of raising up this generation. 

My sponsorship of my daughter, Naomee, has completely changed me. I have never been able to meet her face to face, but we meet in our letters each week, and give each other love across thousands of miles. She calls me mom, and I consider her one of my own. My heart is deeply connected to hers. We have exchanged many letters through the years. I cherish every single letter.  I read them over and over again. I have photos of her displayed all over my home. I talk about her with my friends. I read sweet things she has written to me to my family. Someday, my dream is to go visit her. I long to see her face to face, where I can finally give her a hug and let her know just how much she means to me. 

Naomee is an artist. In each letter she sends, I get a drawing of some kind. She has beautiful penmanship and writes English very well. In her last letter that she sent to me, she included some very detailed drawings for each member of the family. They were a gift for Valentine's day. Each was a little different and personalized for the member it belonged to.

I thought it was time I shared some coloring pages made by my daughter Naomee. Both of my daughters are very talented when it comes to drawing. They are creative and artistic. I love it! Each page was drawn with love by Naomee. She did an AMAZING job! I love her so much!

You can feel free to use the coloring pages for your own PERSONAL use.  But please be kind and do not claim these pictures as your own or offer them for downloads.  It makes me sad to see my pictures on a coloring page website run by someone else.

My heart is for kids and always will be

I love you, Naomee.

DIY Calendar for your Loved One

Several years ago, I made a perpetual calendar for my husband. It was a gift from me and our children. Now it's a priceless keepsake that will be kept forever. If you aren't familiar with the term perpetual it means "never ending or changing, occurring repeatedly." This means the calendar is good for every single year. There is no year listed, or days of the week on this calendar.

The calendar has lived on my husband's desk at work for almost 10 years! Recently he brought it home because I asked to see it again. I had forgotten the work that went into it, and I wanted the sweet reminder of all the things our children said.

Each day has an encouraging word on it for my husband. Some are quotes, some are Bible verses, but most of them are notes from each of us in the family. This was a big project to undertake, but it was also well worth the effort. We now have a calendar full of cute memories from our children to their father.

We made sure to include birthdays in our calendar with a special note from the person whose birthday will be celebrated. On another calendar I made, I included a photo of the person, or couple if it was their wedding anniversary.

If it sounds overwhelming to come up with 365 days of encouraging notes and memories, it's not really that hard to do. With my kids I had a certain number of cards I expected from each of us. I wanted the calendar to be fairly even. Then I gave my children categories to write things about. They could think of things they were thankful for, or a specific memory in the category.

* School
* Birthday
* Holidays
* Dinner / Food
* Church
* Pets
* Games
* Vacations
* Getting ready for the day
* Work / Chores
* Hobbies
* Movies
* Books / Reading time
* Picnics
* Sports
* Songs
* Times you were scared
* Places you go together

And you get the idea. I had the kids think of a few cards from each category I gave them. This made it much easier and didn't seem so overwhelming! In fact, the kids really got on a role with it.

Since I made this with my kids, I had them do a lot of the illustrations on it. If it was done as a gift from only me, I might have used more scrap-booking supplies. My pages were very basic as 365 days is a lot of little cards to make.

My youngest child was a brand new little baby. I obviously had to come up with all his words. The categories helped me finish his cards too! I did get his help by adding footprints and hand prints to his pages. He also doesn't have as many cards as everyone else did. It's so sweet to see his tiny hands and feet!

If you are doing memories, you could print tiny photos to add next to the memory!

The cards are displayed on a calendar base I bought at OfficeMax. You can see from the photo below my cards could have been made larger in size. I was trying to be economical. The laminating pouches can get a little expensive, and the larger the card, the less cards you can fit into a pouch.

You can also see from the photo; the cards could be made to display portrait instead of landscape. I thought it was easier for my kids to illustrate. If I make another one, I might try to do portrait cards instead.

Originally, I planned to do a coil binding on the cards, however after spending all the time creating them, I realized it would be a massive coil to hold that many pieces of paper together. You could bind together a few months' worth and have 4 separate mini calendars for the year.

I typed all the encouraging words and memories in a document on my computer. I also made sure to write the date above each note and left plenty of room in between each one so I could easily cut them out later. After the document was printed, and the dates were all cut out, I glued each of them to 3x5 inch index cards. One 3x5 index card held two dates. (Front and back) You must keep in mind, because of the way the landscape cards are displayed, each individual card's front and back are upside down to each other. If you make them both facing the same direction, when you flip the card over on the base, it will be upside down. If this doesn't make sense, test a card out on the base before you complete your calendar and laminate it.

If you make the cards portrait style, the cards would not need to be upside down to display correctly.

For durability, I made sure to laminate all the cards after they were fully assembled and decorated.

You also want to make sure to hole punch the cards in the correct place. If you don't test it out first, you might end up with your dates displaying out of order.

Only a few months will fit at a time on the calendar base. Because of this, I purchased a plastic box to keep the additional months in.

The kids decorated some dividers for each month. I should have laminated these. Over time the stickers have fallen off. If they had been laminated the stickers would have been sealed on each divider.

This calendar is truly a unique work of art. It also comes from the heart.

It would be a perfect Valentine's day gift for your loved ones. You could make it for all your children or make it for the one child who needs the extra reminder of love.

It would be a great gift to make for Father's Day or Mother's Day. It would make a great teacher appreciation gift from a class. It would make a great present for someone retiring. You could make this kind of calendar for anyone! The ideas are endless!

Several years ago, we made one for my grandmother who had 7 children, 22 grandchildren and wayyyy more great grandchildren. Between that many people the number of cards was much lower, especially when you included spouses.  It was a collaboration of efforts from lots of special family members! With that many people contributing, the calendar was full of birthdays and anniversaries, and it left little room for quotes and extras. It was very special and full of love. It did take a few weeks to gather the information from all the family members, but I know my grandma loved it and used it up until the day she passed away. The calendar now lives at my mother's house getting even more use out of it.

Now that 10 years has passed since I made this very special calendar for my husband, I'm thinking the time has come to make another one! The kids have grown, and their memories have multiplied, along with their love. It would be fun to see what new things would make it into the calendar!