Do you love your mama as much as I love mine? Then make something for her. I’m actually a skeptic when it comes to these holidays. The pressure of making those $95-a-head brunch reservations years ahead of time. The week before panic of not having made those reservations years before. What’s an ungrateful child to do?

If you’re anything like me, you will get yer a*s to the craft or hardware store and find something to make for mom (I know most of you will get flowers which is perfectly acceptable by Hallmark’s standards COP OUT). This is my idea for you. It costs less than $20 and it will take mom back to your grade school craft project days, and there’s just no price tag for something like that.

You will need:

1. Clay. I bought a 1.75 lb pack of Sculpey polymer from Michaels. It cost $13.99 but I had my 40% off coupon, so I paid $8.39.
2. Suede strap. I bought my stash from Michaels for $5.99.
3. A knife (go ahead, do the Crocodile Dundee thing).
4. A plastic spoon.

Let the fun begin!

1. Roll your clay into a ball (the size depends on how large you want your planter to be – I used one section of the clay which is half the pack). This will take some time. It’s similar to baking hard dough goodies like crust. Keep kneading until the clay softens and then it’ll be like putty in your hands. Literally.

2. Use your spoon to carve out a hole for the inside. The back of the spoon works great to pat down the stab wounds.

3. Ta dah. You’re not done yet. Sorry.

4. Poke holes on opposite ends using an allen wrench or nail.

5. Ta dah. I include the ta dah moments to mark the milestones and keep it exciting. Put your planter in the freezer for about 15 minutes. It’ll make the next step easier.

6. Using your knife, start carving off sections to form your geometric pattern. I went with hexagons. Don’t worry about being perfect. I think I ended up with maybe only 3 hexagons on the whole thing.

7. Once you carve out a section, imagine where the hexagon will be positioned and then carve your next line. You’ll get the hang of it and the best thing about clay? You can always start over!

Ta dah!!

Bake your planter according to the package instructions. I baked mine at 275 degrees F for about 15 minutes.

Insert your suede strip into the holes and tie a knot.

You can see that I was a little too impatient and planted my clipping before adding the suede strip. DO IT BEFORE. Trust me on this one.

Ta dah! (For reals this time.)

Cirque du Succulents. Swinging their way into mom’s home. Mother’s Day gift: DONE. Champagne to be picked up and efficiently consumed on actual day.

You will have quite a bit of clay left over from carving out the inside and the geometric pattern.

(This is what I do with my spare time. Play with leftover clay cutouts to form flowers. Totally useful and productive.)

With the remaining clay, I made smaller pots to hold air plants.

I also made a plain pot and painted (with the help of painter’s tape) a chevron pattern on it in gold.

I used gold leaf paint that I already had from painting our living room mirror.

I call this, “Charlie Brown chic.”

Because you can never have too many plant holders if you have as many plants as crazy lady here.

Happy no-need-for-brunch-reservations!