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Baked Styrofoam for Mother's Day

© Traute Klein, biogardener

You can make some unusual Mother's Day presents for all the moms and grandmas in your life. You will have a lot of fun while you are making them. You can use this idea for your Valentine presents, too.

Happy Mother's Day

Are you ready for Mother's Day? It is always the second Monday in May. If you remember that, you can get ready for it in time every year. Today I want to tell you of something unusual you can make which won't cost anything. My Sunday school children made Mother's Day treasures for every woman in the church one year, and it took just an hour.

Collecting the Material

Here is what you will need:

Used styrofoam trays recycled from meat or bakery packages. Only collect the ones which have the little round bumps on them. The ones which are totally flat will warp. The trays come in different colors, but most of them are white. All colors are fine to use.

Scissors. Use a pair which is easy to hold, not little kiddie scissors.

A hole punch, the kind which makes a hole the size of a loose leaf paper hole.

Wool string or very narrow ribbon.

Permanent felt markers of different colors.

An old cookie sheet.

An oven for baking.

Getting the Styrofoam Ready

Wash the styrofoam trays right after use, especially if they had meat on them.

Break the edges off the trays, leaving only the flat centres.

Cut interesting shapes out of each tray, e.g. hearts, stars, or circles. They don't have to be symmetrical, because the irregular ones are more interesting. The hearts are the most popular. With practice, you will be able to cut them freehand. Styrofoam is tricky to cut and the scissors don't always go where you want them to go. That is why it is useless to draw a design first. Forget about using an exacto knife. That is like scatching a chalkboard with your fingernails. Irregularly cut shapes are interesting, anyway. Cut the shapes as large as the tray will allow.

Punch a hole into each shape near the edge and pull a piece of the wool string through the hole. The final product will hang from this string.

Decorate the shape with permanent felt markers. You can draw a picture on it or write words. Make the design large and bold, because it will shrink from the heat. Leave some of the background color, or else the design will get too busy.

Baking Your Goodies

Arrange the decorated shapes on the cookie sheet with the strings already attached. Place in the oven on the middle shelf. Turn the heat onto low, between 150 and 200° F. The lower the heat, the better you will be able to watch the shrinkage.

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