Salt Dough Handprint

If you’re wanting a fun, frugal way to capture this moment in time for your child, make a salt dough handprint!

Honestly, I love just holding this little handprint and tracing my fingers around each of the fingers, just in awe of how small but how amazing my son is.

To make your own little memory of your child, mix up a batch of salt dough. Roll out a ball of dough on some wax paper and have your child press their hand into it. Use a toothpick to make a little hole in the top and maybe write the initials and age of the child somewhere. You can neaten up the edges as well.

I recommend just leaving your handprint out to dry in a safe place for several days. I think ours took almost a week, but I tried baking other salt dough projects in the oven and they got too puffy and never really dried out :(.

This could be a great Father’s Day gift or something for grandma and grandpa!

I’m linking up to What Are Little Boys Made of and Preschool Corner Friday.

Handprint Bats

 

Here's a quick Halloween craft you can do with your kids...handprint bats! You can have different sized bats if parents and kids all participate.

1. Trace and cut out two of your child's (or your own) handprints. We did purple construction paper for some more color contrast.
2. Cut out:
1. A purple oval and a smaller black oval.
2. A purple circle for the head.
3. Two purple triangles.
4. Two little feet.
3. Glue the handprints to the purple oval, and attach all of the other shapes.
4. Add on some googly eyes, and draw on a little mouth. We used chalkboard markers, but any marker will work.
5. Hang your cute little creation upside down and admire your work.

Thank you Simple Everyday Mom for the cute idea!

Handprint Monsters

Last year for Halloween my 6 year old made these adorable handprint monsters at school…

They are so simple to make and turn out super cute! Just paint your child’s hand except for a few fingers and have them make handprints on paper. Add googly eyes and draw on some feet.

Have fun with your own little monsters! :)

I Love You Card

There’s something special about preserving children’s handprints to me…I love any art that helps me remember in years to come how small my children were. Last year, the kids at our church made these adorable cards for their mothers for Mother’s Day…
Just trace your child’s handprint, cut it out and glue all but the two middle fingers to another piece of colorful paper. Then, fold the two middle fingers down and glue the tips of the fingers to the palm area to make the handprint do the sign for “I love you”. Super simple, but super cute!

Handprint Valentines

My boys are growing up so fast and I feel like I’m constantly trying to find some way to preserve the way they are now…handprints and footprints seem to be one of the best ways to serve as a reminder of how small they were. Last year my boys made these adorable handprint Valentine’s for their Daddy and I really appreciated how simple they were to make, but also the simple yet powerful message they conveyed…

All you do is trace and cut out your child’s hands. Have them write or draw a message on it. The hand on the left was traced by my 4 year old and he wrote the little I “heart” U Dad on it. :).

Then take the two middle fingers and wrap them around a pencil. This will curl the fingers down making the handprint say I Love You in sign language.

I so wish I could remember where I found this idea!

I’ll be linking up to…

Handprint Spiders

There’s a soft spot in my heart for any crafts that involve my children’s hand and foot prints…such a simple way to preserve my boys at least a little bit :). Which is why I couldn’t resist making these handprint spiders to send as cards to relatives!

Just paint all of your child’s hand except the thumb and press it down. Then flip the paper over and repeat giving your spider 8 legs. Happy Halloween!

Handprint Bunnies

Whether you are celebrating Easter, or you just need a fun spring craft, try making these hand print bunnies with your kids!

Footprint Carrot for Easter

A perfect Easter craft for little ones who are too little to do handprint crafts is this adorable footprint carrot!

Just put baby's foot in orange paint and "stamp" it onto paper or wood. Then draw or paint the green leaves and you're done! Footprint crafts are the perfect way to look back later and see how tiny your kids really were.

We made an Easter card for my aunt, and this was on the front.

Thank you Parenting for the cute idea!

Family Hand-Print Turkey

There's nothing quite like kids' hand-prints to preserve just how little they were as they grew up, which is why I fell in love with the idea of a family hand-print turkey!

I can't wait to frame our turkey so I can pull it out year after year and remember how small (or big in the case of my 9 year old!) my kids' hands were in the year 2016. Look at the tiny purple hand of my 2 year old!

We traced each of our hands on construction paper. Then I traced a cup for the body of the turkey and free-handed the neck/head and beak. I printed out the "Thankful for Family" and "2016" on a piece of card stock and glued it all together.

Thank you Mainly Homemade for the cute idea! I will treasure this for years to come.

Simple Easter Crafts

 Spring break is upon us, and Easter will be here before we know it! Here are two simple crafts to keep your little ones busy...at least for a little bit:

B is for Bunny craft:

1. On a piece of construction paper, draw a large letter B
2. Along the letter, put some white school glue. If your child is old enough, they can do this part.
3. Have your child place cotton balls on the glue.
4. Cut out some bunny ears and glue those on at the top of your letter B.
5. Add some googly eyes and you have a cute, alphabet Easter craft.

Handprint Bunnies

1. Trace your child's hand and cut it out.
2. Fold the middle finger behind the bunny (or cut it off)
3. Fold down the pinky finger and thumb to act as the bunny's arms.
4. Have your child draw on the face, feet, and inside of ears.
5. Voila! You have a cute little hand print bunny!

Thank you The Simple Parent, and One Little Project for the fun ideas!