I just booked a flight to head down to my grandparent's place in Florida for Mother's Day which has prompted me to start brainstorming about what to make this year for gifts.
Last year for Mother's Day I decided to make some fruit soaps for the special ladies in my life. I bought some square molds and tried the soap instructions from the April 2011 Martha Stewart Living. I decided to make lemon, orange, strawberry and raspberry. The instructions were clear and the soaps were easy to make but I found that they darkened up a lot as the fruit purees sat in the warm soap. If you try this, less is better when you add the fruit purees. You can see in my picture that the raspberry soap on the bottom turned out a really deep burgundy color.
After the soaps cooled I popped them out of the molds and stacked them with squares of vellum between each soap. To package the soaps I wrapped a strip of vellum around each stack, trimming the ends with scalloped scissors. I threaded white paper flowers on small yellow brads and used them to secure the vellum. To finish I wrote "Happy Mother's Day" with a white gel pen on strips of cranberry cardstock and tucked them behind the flowers.
The soaps were a big hit with everyone and something I may make again for myself sometime.
Are you making any gifts for Mother's Day this year? What are you going to do to celebrate?