Paper Plate Basket of Flowers Craft

This craft never got displayed at our house because Mia almost immediately took the flowers out and told me that she wanted to put Easter eggs inside instead of flowers--I think I may have seen this craft somewhere before and that might have inspired the flower basket. I'm not really sure, though. I guess you can decide whether or not you want it to be an Easter craft, a Mother's Day craft, or just a spring craft.

{Basket of Flowers by Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• paper plate
• scissors
• craft sticks
• tape
• crayons 
• construction paper
• green marker
• ribbon (optional)
• paint (optional)
• paint brush (if using paint)

Directions:

1. Cut a paper plate in half.
2. Trim around the the outer arc of one half of the plate. This piece will be the basket handle.
3. Color your basket and handle using crayons or markers.
4. Tape basket handle to the back of the paper plate half.
5. Make flowers for the basket. Mia traced some flower shaped cookie cutters and I helped her cut them out. She also used some flower shaped sponges (which we had bought on clearance at Meijer) to stamp some shapes with tempera paint. Once the paint was dry, I helped her cut them out.
6. Using a green marker, color some craft sticks to make stems for the flowers. Tape craft sticks to the back side of the paper flowers.
7. If desired, add a decorative bow to the flower basket. You might also want to add one to the back for hanging it.