Homemade gifts just make the heart swell with love, and happy memories of making or receiving them abound, not to mention how economically wise they can be. This year, the family and I decided to make environmentally friendly gifts for Christmas, and not only were the gifts made from the heart, the satisfaction of staying green AND discovering that the four of us could work as a team equaled a total win-win.
The kids decided that for grandparents they wanted to make seed mosaic art, and it was truly a family affair. The boys made the drawings and did a bunch of the gluing, with Mom giving guidance and filling in where necessary. Dad made the frames with old branches from our yard.
This fish is a rainbow trout, fly fishing being my dad’s favorite outdoor pasttime.
And, of course, hummingbirds seemed the perfect choice for other art subjects, because all our kids’ grandparents love hummingbirds!
We used all sorts of beans and seeds, including kidney beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, white beans, pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds, millet, flax seed, black beans, lentils, and green split peas. These we glued onto a thick piece of off-white paper with good old-fashioned white glue, following a lightly pencilled outline of our drawing. Next we glued the paper onto a slightly larger wood board, and to that we attached the frame pieces my husband had carefully cut. To ensure the frame dried how we wanted it, we carefully clamped the pieces in place after the glue was applied. And prior to all the gluing, we nailed a small picture hanger on to the back of the board.
Ah yes, we added in a little popcorn for color variation.
For other family and friends, we tried our hand at making seed ornaments, as often in the past we’ve enjoyed giving purchased seed gifts for others, to hang out for the birdies.
We used a recipe that I found online — it used unflavored gelatin as the ingredient to stick together the black oil sunflower seeds, safflowers, peanuts, corn, cranberries, raisins, thistle, flax, and other bird-happy foods, hopefully holding the intended shape. The best cookie cutter I had for the project was a large star, and we used it to shape most of the ornaments. We also used some round plastic storage containers for larger seed wheels — these were much easier to shape, but much worse for drying time! Twine through the ornaments served as the hangers.
I want to say that the birdseed ornaments were a success, and in some ways they were. Once dry, the ornaments held their shape fairly well, but the key was definitely to let them dry fully, flipping when necessary. Overall I didn’t allow enough dry time, thanks to the recipes I looked at being vague. They weren’t just vague in dry time, they also were vague in the gelatin/seed ratio and recipe. Any of the ornaments that didn’t get to air-dry well quickly turned to moldy ick, so I couldn’t give more than a few out. SO… I’ll need to work on this to perfect it. The idea was good! Once I improve on the project, I’ll post details of the new and better recipe.
We attempted one other earth-friendly project for kids’ gifts, but they were far more time-consuming than we expected. So this secret project will be on hold for next year!
I’d love to hear what you made for gifts this year, or what you’ve done in the past. We’re already looking forward to our next projects!
omg. You don’t even know how much you’ve just helped me. There are four of us who’ve decided to do secret santa – must be homemade – must be under $20 gifts. We’ve postponed until February. Guess who I got? My husband. Yes, the person I’ve been buying gifts for several times a year for 20 years now. I was totally completely stumped, but I think I’m going to attempt a mosaic like you’ve done. These are so ornate and beautiful! The hummingbird is awesome. If you had any rock and roll patterns I could follow, then you’d really be helping me!! Awesome gifts!
Meredith,
These are so cool and very good designs too! Pretty talented bunch you have there!
Wendy and Randy, they were so much fun to create. Thank you! The boys are planning a giant dragon for a mosaic for the house, can you believe it?
Wendy, please send pics if you make one! Another tip — we used small paintbrushes to thickly apply the glue to the paper, working in small areas at a time. Toothpicks helped us guide the seeds to just the right position. I periodically added a little more glue in between and around the seeds to help secure them well (beans aren’t exactly flat, so I was worried about them coming off over time — hence the extra glue). Good luck!
What a great gift. I bet the grandparents were delighted. The frame idea is fabulous.
I had a seed mosaic rooster that hung in my kitchen for years until the corn seeds crumbled.
Truly works of art, straight from the heart. The very best kind of gift. 🙂
A gift like this has the potential to end up looking like a kindergarten project but both of yours turned out really great. I especially like the humming bird picture.
I’m looking forward to the dragon picture. I’m sure it’ll turn out awesome, too.
P.S. Technically it’s not “popcorn” until it’s actually popped. Until then, it’s simply corn (or maize). 🙂
I am Youth director and teacher a my church. We are having VBS in a couple of weeks. Love the picture of the humming bird. Do you have a pattern for this? Would love to use this with my teens this year in VBS. I was thinking on doing the picture with a rooster made with beans, but I think they would the humming bird better.
No pattern — we just sketched it out and worked with a variety of seeds of beans to create it. I’m glad you are thinking about doing a mosaic bean project. It’s definitely a lot of fun. And there are so many different animals or birds or flowers you could consider — maybe you could sketch a few different pictures and let the kids choose. Good luck!