In honor of Memorial Day, I wanted to share about an activity I did with my kids last year for Veterans Day. For the holiday the family playgroup I help run created cute thank you cards to send to troops and veterans. The event was a lot of fun for the kids and we're so excited to have started the tradition. This year our organization will be adding even more activities to help support our service members and their families. I'm really looking forward to sharing about the new activities very soon.
For the cards, we gave them to a local organization, Blue Star Moms, who were sending holiday care packages to troops overseas. Because of safety concerns there were a few guidelines we had to follow with them such as not using glitter on the cards and no confetti. The cards themselves were incredibly easy to make and I was able to find all the supplies for it at my local craft store, Michaels.
Here's how we made them...
Supplies Needed -
Dark tan blank cards and envelopes: I was able to find these in large stacks at the craft store. I purposefully used a darker color, so that the white in the flag hand print would show up.
Acrylic or Washable (Tempera) Paint in red, white and blue
Silver or white mini star stickers
Modge Podge (matte texture)
Stamps and ink pads (optional): To make it easier for the kids to help with the messages we used stamps with sweet sayings. Majority of the kids who made them are in preschool, but for older kids they can certainly add their own messages.
Crayons and colored pencils for the kids to either draw or write messages in the cards. *Make sure to follow the organization's guidelines about what can be written in the cards.
To Make Them -
First we stamped onto the cards different thank you messages. After the ink dried (only took about 10 minutes), we then created the flag. To make the flag it's actually very simple. Have your child face their hand palm side up and spread open their fingers. With the paint, add blue to the palm. On each finger paint alternating red and white along the finger. Simply turn the hand over and press it onto the cards front. We were trying to make them look like Christmas trees, so we positioned the hand to look like a tree. To make it special for the holiday season, we stamped a star at the top of the "tree" (finger tips) and drew with a brown marker a small stump at the bottom. If it's not the holiday season then the extras for the Christmas tree can easily be excluded and it'll still look very cute. To create the stars for the flag, we simply added the stickers to the blue section. I used modge podge to set the stars in place by doing a thin coat on top of them. I did this because they could easily come off, and being reflective that could be dangerous if they stuck to the uniforms. And that's all it takes to make the cards.
I was really happy how this craft turned out and it makes such a great learning experience for kids. It's easy to get caught up in the fun bbqs, retail specials and excitement of summer starting that Memorial Day brings. I feel it's still important though to remember what the holiday is about and the sacrifices that were made so that we could all have so much fun over the holiday weekend. I wish everyone a happy holiday weekend!
To learn more about Blue Star Moms and to find a local chapter go to Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc.
