Child’s Keepsake Hand/Footprint Art DIY
Child’s Keepsake Hand/Footprint Art DIY.
We show you how to make sweet flower art with your child’s hand and foot prints.
Minimum mess. No tears or tantrums (or at least tips to minimize them).
Plus tips to get successful baby prints (which could be like countering a terrorist attack).
Child’s Keepsake: How To Get Hand and Foot Prints
Your child’s keepsake hand/footprint art will be a family treasure for years to come. We love keepsake art, and you can find another idea in this post.
But we know it’s not easy to get prints from toddlers, and almost impossible from babies.
So we’ll give some tips on achieving success with both.
What you’ll need to make your child’s keepsake art:
Child safe paint such as finger-paints or non-toxic acrylic paints (our choice for more permanence).
Several pieces of background paper for the flower art. Take into consideration the size of your child’s prints to determine what size of paper you want. Have several pieces because it might take a little practice to get it right. We use 140# watercolor paper for this.
Green card stock for stems and leaves. Or green paint if you want to paint the stems and leaves onto the background. With older children, this is a step they can complete with your help, making it even more personal.
Sturdy paper plates. Damp paper towel or hand towel you can throw away afterwards. Have one for each color of flower.
Clean up tools. For this we recommend a warm water bath or wet towel in a bowl. This one is especially important to have near at hand when you do baby’s prints. You can’t leave baby’s side to get anything during a project. The easiest might be to do this on a cleared counter top beside a handy sink full of warm water with clean dry towels nearby. Another option would be lots of baby wipes!
Patience. It can take several tries and perfect timing to get good prints. Use strategic timing, especially with toddlers and babies. Get them when they’re not hungry, upset, sleepy, too active, and so on. Yep, strategy is needed here. You don’t want to deal with little terrorists for this project. On the other hand, if you want a newborn’s prints, you can’t wait so long that they’ve grown before you get successful prints!
Partner. It’s always good to have backup when expecting disaster. Parts of this procedure will definitely benefit from a willing and intelligent partner. You know, the kind of person who can anticipate problems and forestall them while your hands are full of baby or toddler. One who knows the plan ahead of time will also be a big help. For example, go over strategy step by step and plan for all contingencies. Take this with a grain of salt. You know your child, and you know how badly you want this keepsake art. So proceed knowing that.
Now that your tools and plans are in order, this is how to proceed:
Lightly mark your background paper where you want to place the hand and foot prints. If you want precision, trace your child’s hand and foot with a pencil onto paper, cut out, and lightly trace around them on the background paper. You can erase the pencil marks if the paint doesn’t cover them.
Squirt paint on the evenly damp paper towel in the paper plates. You won’t need very much, unless you want to do several practice runs. Spread the paint around on the towel so it’s evenly coated and not too thick. Prepare each color this way. Test with your own hand on practice paper to see how much paint and/or dampness you need.
Lift the paper plate near your child’s hand, and guide his/her hand palm flat on the towel. A baby will immediately clench that little fist again, so your partner can help reopen it and get it situated for the background paper. Don’t expect to get all the cute little lines that they get at the hospital if they do prints. (They used to do the prints for identification, but that’s a thing of the past. Some hospitals don’t do it anymore.) Since paint is thicker than an ink pad there won’t be as much detail. Immediately clean the little hands before you proceed to the feet.
Repeat this with the footprints. Oh, yes, we didn’t mention this before, but you want to do each hand and each foot, to have opposite prints of each. When you paint the foot prints, place the heel down on the paper first, then gently press the arch and toes down in the direction the flower should go.
Plop toddler in the water and let him splash a little to cheer him up after this ordeal. Make sure your partner removes the art to a safe distance first!
Baby will need a more gentle approach to cleaning, but before bath time is a good time to do this project. Especially if they love baths. Newborn? No tub baths of course, but proceed with your usual non-immersible bath.
When children are safe and hopefully asleep, continue with the keepsake project.
Finish your Child’s Keepsake Hand/Footprint Art.
Fill in the form at the bottom of this page to get a printable pattern for the stems and leaves to finish your child’s keepsake project.
We include sizes for an 8″ x 10″ and a 9″ x 12″ frame.
If your child’s prints are larger than this just enlarge the pattern and use a larger frame.
Cut out and adhere the stems and leaves below the flowers.
Insert art into your frame.
Note: It’s fun to personalize and date the art. In a few years, you can show your teenager how little he was at one time, and how he was at your complete mercy. (I’m joking, you know, right?)
If you have good calligraphy or hand writing, here’s where you shine. If not, print out the name and date and create a classy little label to attach to the paper or the frame.
Another option for Child’s Keepsake Flower Art:
If this project looks too daunting to your determination, we have another option for you.
Head over to our Baby Shop and allow us to make a print for you. All you have to do is supply the prints in black and white, which is easiest with this no-mess handprint ink pad. The listing for the ink pad includes great directions on how to use it. Or maybe you’re lucky enough to have newborn prints from the hospital. We will change the prints to the colors of your choice and email a printable jpeg to you, or if your choice is a finished print, we will print and ship it to you. Or to grandma and grandpa!
Enjoy your child’s keepsake art!
Until next time,
Love, Kim & Dorothy