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DIY Seed Bomb: a fun and simple May Day Gift for kids to make and give

DIY May Day Gift seed bombs DIY Seed bombs

One of my favorite memories as a child was the year that we did May day gift baskets for our friends. We carefully rolled paper cones, punched holes through the top and ran ribbon through them, then placed fresh flowers inside. My sisters and I ran up and down the neighborhood hanging the May day baskets on our friends’ doorknobs, ringing the bell and hiding.

May Day has European origins and is celebrated more widely there than in the United States. Some early European settlers of America brought some of the traditions to the U.S. and “in some parts of the United States, May baskets are made. These are small baskets usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone’s doorstep. The giver rings the bell and runs away.” (Wikipedia).

I love to celebrate any holiday (of course!) so I wanted to do a version of May Day Gifts with my kids this year. I saw a Pinterest Pin for Seed Bombs from SerendipityRefined.com and thought her seed bombs would be a fun (and less expensive) twist on the traditional flower basket. My kids LOVE to plant things and watch them grow and these seed bombs are a great way to get kids outside and planting, and an easy and super fun May Day gift for kids to give!

The only thing I had to purchase were wild flower seed which we got from our local farming store for $5.

 

How to make the May Day Gift seed bombs:

 

DIY May Day Gift idea: Seed bombs for your kids to make

 

 

 

We followed the tutorial on Serendipityrefined.com pretty closely and my kids were able to help with all the steps.

First we cut/shred paper. We wanted multi-color paper so we used separate bowls for each color paper.  We realized pretty quickly that a better method was to use the paper shredder so most of our paper was done that way!

Second we covered the paper with water and let it sit for a couple of hours.

Third we made the paper into a pulp in our food processor. We did one color at a time and after it was pulpy I pushed most of the water out of the paper using a strainer.

Fourth we stirred in the wildflower seed gently by hand into each paper bowl.

Fifth we put layers of paper towel onto a cookie sheet and then pushed the paper pulp into cookie cutters, then removed the cookie cutters as soon as the shape was full. (That’s a picture of my 1 1/2 year old helping, she had so much fun adding the paper…we just had to unload a bit of her cookie cutters.

Sixth we laid them out in the sun to dry.

**TIPS WE LEARNED***

These are very light, you will need to anchor them down if you dry them out in the sun!

They took quite awhile to dry. Several hours in the sun one day and then the next day all inside!

They are quite fragile…most of the seed bombs we made with the flower cookie cutter that has petals did not survive. You’ll want to choose shapes that aren’t very detailed or intricate.

I made several free printables May Day Gift cards for your flower bombs if you decide to make this fun little gift. You can find them in my Gift Printables Library (which you can access after putting your email in below).

Simply print them on cardstock, then make cuts above and below the “Happy May Day” rectangle as large as you need for your seed bomb to fit. Punch holes and thread ribbon through the top for easy May Day gift hanging!

 

DIY May Day Gift idea: Seed bombs for your kids to make

 

Who these May Day gifts are for:

These seed bombs would be a fun gift for kid friends and grown-up friends! I also think they would be a great Mother’s Day for grandmas (let me know if you want me to make a Mother’s Day version of the printable and I will do it).

Does anyone else have something fun planned for May Day? It is also my wedding anniversary so hopefully we will get to do something fun together.

I hope you enjoy this idea, thanks for stopping by!

Happy Gifting!

Steph

DIY May Day Gift idea: Seed bombs for your kids to make

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Melanie

Monday 23rd of April 2018

I am super excited to try to make these!!! I have been eating a lot of Cheerios and collecting the seed packets to bring back the bees!!!! Is there another way to pulp the paper? I have a blender and a hand emolsion mixer, but not a (name just slipped my mind). Thanks! Do you want to see pictures once we make ours!??

The Gifty Girl

Monday 23rd of April 2018

Yes, you can totally use a blender! I would love to see pics when you are done, have fun!!

Six unique gift ideas moms and grandmas will LOVE! ~ The Gifty Girl

Thursday 4th of May 2017

[…] These seed bombs can be planted under a small amount of dirt and they grow gorgeous wildflowers that also help out the bees. They are so much fun! Read the whole DIY here on my May Day blog post. […]

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