Mother’s Day coloring pages

Here the sheet isn’t the end of the work — it is the material. Color it, cut out the motif, glue it onto a folded sheet of paper: the card is handmade, not bought. The bouquets and the hearts were chosen for that: a compact motif cuts out in three snips.

Make them a week ahead, not the night before. A three-year-old makes three cards in a row with enthusiasm and the fourth under duress; spread over two evenings, the same batch gets finished without anyone asking.

The date moves from country to country — the second Sunday of May in the United States, the first in Spain, the last in France. The sheets don’t care, and neither does the gesture.

• The card to give, step by step
• What to do with finished coloring pages