As your child grows, it’s intimidating to watch how quickly he develops. It seems like just yesterday he was cooing. Now he’s toddling around and not longer after that he will be off to his first day of school. Hand-print crafts will capture that individual shape and size of his little hand. Put together the craft as a way to entertain him on a rainy afternoon. Keep the craft or send it to family and friends to commemorate his tiny form.
Shapes
Depending on the orientation of your child’s palm and fingers, you can create a number of shapes from his hand. With fingers outstretched and spread apart, his hand can create a feathery or leafy shape. With fingers closed, he can make an oval or rounded rectangle, with a soft point at one end. If you dip the pinky side of his fist in ink, you can make a long thin line. It also looks like a baby’s footprint without toes. You’ll have to fill in toes with dots.
Supplies
You can put your child’s hand print in various media. On paper, you can stamp his hand with ink or paint. Buy an ink pad or pour some ink into a shallow dish to dip into. Use a thick paper, like construction paper, to stamp his hand. You can also trace his hand and cut it out of any paper of your choice. If you have some concrete or plaster in a little dish, press his hand into the dish, and let it dry.
Seasonal
Your child can make many different seasonal crafts from hand prints. Use the print for the body of animals, such as turkeys and other birds. Create trees, flowers and suns from the feathery digits of the prints. Hands, open or closed, can make wings for bugs and butterflies. As your kids get older, let them experiment with different pictures.
Keepsakes
Aside from using hand-print molding kits, you can make hand-print keepsakes for your loved ones or yourself. You can keep these in your child’s baby book or scrapbook. These also work great in double picture frames. Cut a piece of paper big enough to fit one side of the print. Dip the child’s hand into ink and place the hand on the paper. Let it dry and place it in the frame. Put a picture of the child at his current age on the other side.
Other Prints
In addition to hand prints, you can make prints of your child’s foot or fingers. Your child’s foot makes great little rectangles. Tips of fingers make dots while thumbs make little ovals. Your child can make whole scenes with his various digits.
Photo Credit
- handprint image by FotoWorx from Fotolia.com
