Mother's Day Inspiration

It is thought that celebrating mothers has been something that has taken place since the days of the Ancient Greeks. Every Springtime, they would celebrate Rhea, with lavish festivals. A symbol of nature and fertility and the daughter of Gaia (Mother Earth), they honoured Rhea as the mother of the Gods and Goddesses. It wasn’t until much later that Mothering Sunday developed into the day we recognise now. During the 1600’s, it came to pass that the fourth Sunday in Lent was a day reserved for celebrating the Mother Mary (also known as the Virgin Mary). On this day, efforts were made to gather as a family at a ‘mother church’. Family members would travel to visit their family, and particularly their own mother.

We desperately wish this year that we could travel until our hearts content to see loved ones, but we know so many of us will not be able to visit on Mother's Day as a result of the current pandemic. In the absence of hugs and home visits, a Mother’s Day card will be even more important. With many independent card shops shut around the UK, choices are limited to supermarket cards, so what better way to show your love this Mother’s Day than with a handmade card.

So if you have some of our kits or masterclasses, why not take a look at what we’ve been creating this week to inspire you.

 

  

Inspired by our recent research in to Floriography, we decided to combine these three flowers in a beautiful wreath arrangement. According to the secret language of flowers, a deep pink rose is the perfect flower to express feelings of gratitude and appreciation, so what better flower is there to say thank you for all a mother does.  We paired the roses with elegant tulips, and although a red tulip shines on Valentine’s Day, a pink tulip is a symbol of care and attachment. We completed the wreath with a few sprigs of lavender as these flowers are known to symbolise grace, devotion and of course they signify calmness and elegance.

To paint this design, we used the 'Vintage Rose' tutorial from our Intermediate Masterclass, the 'Lavender' tutorial from our Beginners Masterclass and the tulip tutorial from one of our previous blog posts. You can also get the pattern from our Pinterest board here. 

 

  

This beautiful bouquet of flowers is one of the lessons taught in our Masterclass For Beginner Painters. Did you know that daisies were seen as the sacred flower of Freya, (the goddess of love and fertility)? They are seen as a symbol of childbirth, new beginnings and motherhood. Daisies are the perfect flower to give to a new mum to communicate gratitude and thanks. We certainly didn’t see this design as a Mother’s Day design when we were creating the Masterclass but it couldn’t be more perfect!

  

  

This heart from the Beginners Masterclass can be used in so many different ways and looks beautiful in different colours, but we have kept it simple with pink and white and have added “Mum’ to the centre to personalise it.

 

In our Beginners Masterclass, we created this scroll as part of our “Peace and Love” tutorial, but it can be used in so many different ways! Drawing around a heart template (or one of our trusty heart mount boards), we drew the scroll across the middle. We base coated the scroll following the tutorial instructions (leaving out the greenery and bluebird from the original design), waited for it to dry and then using a few pastel colours, we painted dotty flowers along the edge of heart shape. If you don’t feel confident flying solo with this, don’t worry as always we have the patterns on our Pinterest board.

 

  

You know how we love to adapt and reuse designs here at You Can Folk It! We took our Valentine’s heart from our previous blog tutorial and gave it a Mother’s Day makeover. Tulips alone signify a deep, unconditional love, which is a perfect message to give to your mum. We painted ours in pink - for happiness and attachment.

 

 

We also painted them using colour Yellow Ochre. Yellow tulips symbolise cheerfulness but also friendship. If your Mum is also your best friend, we couldn’t think of a better flower this March for the perfect Mother's Day card. You can find the pattern on our Pinterest board here. 

 

Have you created your own Mother’s Day card this year? Share them with us on social media, we would love to see them.

 

Until next time x