Mother’s Day Art Therapy Ideas
Mother’s Day is a wonderful opportunity for you to express your love and appreciation to your mom through creative art projects that can be also be a personalized gift for your mom. These projects can help you explore your relationship with your mom through the creative process, and the finished product can be fun, thoughtful and unique way to express your love and appreciation for your mom and the many ways that she touches your life. The following ideas will get your creative juices flowing and will open your mind and heart.
Mom’s Heart Map
Start by drawing an outline of a heart, then use your drawing, painting, and writing skills to create a diagram of what your mom’s heart looks like to you. Use this activity to create a visualization of all the things you love and appreciate about her. Be sure to include mom’s personal hobbies and any activities she enjoys. Maybe gardening sparks joy for your mom, or she loves making an intricate charcuterie board, or she loves to dance. Find a way to incorporate these elements into her heart map! If she’s a gardener, you can accent the heart with watercolor flowers or dried flowers; if she loves books, include quotes from her favorite reads. Get creative! You can use any kind of medium you can think of to decorate her heart map: felt tip pens, markers, paint, oil pastels, chalk, or colored pencils. Make it personal with embellishments made out of clay, sequins, beads, stickers, wooden cutouts, even found objects like small toys or sea glass. Anything that honors your mom belongs on her heart map. Make it fun! Receiving the heart map as a gift will bring her joy, but it will bring her even more joy for her to know that you had fun in the process. Go the extra mile and frame the heart map and gift it to your mom this Mother’s Day.
Framed Art Necklace
Here are the materials you’ll need:
Sculpey Clay
Skewer
Plastic page protector
Cardstock or poster board
Tacky glue
Markers
Scissors
Pencil
Ruler
Ribbon or yarn
Beads
Decorative paper straws
Aluminum foil
Baking dish
Have a younger sibling create a portrait of mom using markers or paint. Place the picture inside a plastic page protector and cut the plastic to fit the picture, then help them create a frame out of polymer clay. Encourage the use of different colors, and show then how to create different textures or patterns in the clay using different tools. For example, you can use a rubber stamp to create impressions in the clay, or straws to create circles. Use a skewer to poke a hole in the top center of the frame. Bake the clay according to package instructions (have an adult help if you are under 12), remove from oven and let cool completely. Carefully glue the picture inside the frame, and then have your sibling choose a 24-inch piece of ribbon or yarn and lace through the hole in the frame for the necklace. Have them thread beads, tubed pasta and/or colorful pieces of paper straws onto the necklace for added flair. Now your mom has wearable art that captures the uniqueness of the little hands that created it!
My Mother, Myself Collage
This is an art therapy activity for those without a mother this Mother’s Day. Whether or not your mother is earth-side, we are all mothers to ourselves. In what ways do we care for ourselves? What are some positive mothering skills your mother has passed on to you? This project is an opportunity for you to explore your self-nurturing skills and to honor the memory of your mother.
Get reflective: Grab your favorite pen and two pieces of stationary paper. On one paper, brainstorm a list of ways your mom has mothered you. On the second paper, list all of the ways you take good care of yourself.
Get inspiration: Then, look for magazine clippings of pictures and words that remind you of the ways she has shown her love (such as singing to you as a child, or cooking a comforting meal) and of the ways you show love to yourself (such as taking a hot bath or practicing yoga).
Get creative: Glue the magazine clippings to a piece of cardstock or poster board. Adorn with embellishments like gemstones, beads, or artificial flowers and decorate with glitter for added sparkle. Try to tell a story of your mother’s love and your own self love through your art.
Then, step back and admire your work. Allow yourself to feel any emotions that arise and record them in a journal. You can frame your finished artwork, or place it on an alter next to other objects that remind you of your mother. This is a wonderful way to honor her life, love, love, and spirit while also reflecting on your own ability to love and care for yourself.
These art therapy projects can help you express and explore your relationship with your mom, and the finished product can be used as a gift memorial to your mom and her unique love. It is our hope that you find love, healing, growth and inner peace through one of these activities this Mother’s Day.
Contributed by Lift clinical intern Errin Gaulin
