Cheap crafts for a crowd

I work with the children at my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), we call it Primary.  We have anywhere between 70-85 children who come on a regular basis.  This can be a challenge when you need an affordable craft for Mother's Day and Father's Day etc.  It is also a challenge to have a craft appropriate for children ages 4-11.

This year for Mother's Day I used an idea from one of my favorite blogs, HowAboutOrange.  Here's the finished product made by my daughter to me:

Instead of having the children fold the paper into fans for the medallion we used flattened muffin liners.  This cut down on the time required.  I used a giant round paper punch (purchased at a yard sale for $1!) for the centers.  We already had colored paper and glue sticks in the closet.  All I had to buy were straight pins and muffin liners for a total of about $5.00!

How to top that for Father's Day?!  I searched on line and found something right away at ArtProjectsforKids.  This project uses thin cardboard boxes from the pantry like cracker, cereal, and pasta boxes to make covers for mini books.  We already had plenty of staples, staplers, and paper so no money was spent!  Once the books were made, the children drew pictures and made notes to their dads.  I think it went well.