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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Footprint and Handprint Keepsake Crafts
Upon arrival this morning, one of my preschoolers informed me that his
Nana’s birthday is today and both his daddy and his meme celebrate their
birthdays tomorrow. He wanted to make them a special card. We love
doing footprint and handprint keepsake crafts so we did an internet
search for ideas. We found so many cute examples so we decided to do
several of our own.
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
We started painting his foot.
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Then, we pressed his painted foot onto white paper.
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
This is our footprint tractor.
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Our Footprint Lion
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Our Snowman
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Our Penguin
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Our Bee
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Our Butterfly
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
Our Fish
This is the one my little guy chose to give to his daddy for his birthday gift.
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
We chose this card for his Nana. We made the same card for his Meme,
but with a different color card. I pasted white paper on the inside so
my little guy could draw his Nana and his Meme a special birthday
picture, which he did.
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| Image Credit: Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove) |
We found an example of a handprint
birthday cake we liked. We didn’t use it for a birthday card today, but
we made one anyway just because we liked it.
Helpful Hint: When painting the child’s
hand, remember NOT to paint the thumb for this particular handprint
keepsake craft. The four fingers make nice candles but the thumb just
sort of sticks out – all out of place. I learned this the hard way. I
ended up cutting out the handprint, cutting off the thumb, and then
pasting it onto solid colored paper. Maybe we will save this one for
the next special day in his family.
Footprint and handprint crafts are also
great for other special days such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter
and Christmas cards. Valentine’s Day is coming up so these ideas are
perfect for parent and grandparent Valentine’s Day cards. They are
great for aunts and uncles too!
Another footprint and handprint keepsake
option is to use a mold to create stepping stones, table top, or wall
decorations. I have created several handprint and footprint molds using
different materials. Plaster of Paris is OK, but it is very fragile.
If you are familiar with ceramics, you can make a ceramic handprint
mold. We have also poured cement into pie pans and then pressed hands
and feet into the cement to create keepsake molds. Cement molds work
well. They are durable and you can paint them to make them more
attractive, but they are also heavy.
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| Flower Craft for Spring |