I was flipping through one of the 3 Oriental Trading catalogs that came in the mail a couple weeks ago and I came across this picture in the Valentine's Day book:
It has a cute little saying on the trunk, and I just knew I wanted to make something similar with my girls. (I'm a HUGE fan of handprint art!)
I'm sure you're aware of the freezing cold temperatures that are going around and today was no exception. I woke up with a killer sore throat, knew I didn't want to do much so decided today was the day for our handprint project.
I raided my scrapbook papers and I just happened to have a 16X20 frame that I picked up at the Goodwill for $2.99. (don't you just LOVE the Goodwill??) I grabbed a piece of posterboard from the Dollar Tree to use as the background and the rest of my handy tools.
I grabbed several shades of green so the girls could have their choice, plus I originally intended for the picture to have my husband's and my handprint but ended up not having enough room for all 4. Poo!
I traced everyone's hand/arm onto cardstock for a template. (unfortunately Daddy was at work so we had traced his handprint ahead of time)
I needed a tree shape so I just whipped up a drawing on cardstock and cut it out.
Then I had to trace it onto the girls' choice of green paper. This required a LOT of cutting on my part and they were getting restless so I handed them some scrap paper and some scrapbook scissors and let them have at it!
Now, here's where my dilemma came in. I needed red paint for their fingerprint hearts, but all I had was watercolors. I was afraid that would be too watery and make my paper bubble and wave. So I ended up taking a red WASHABLE marker and rubbing it on their fingers! LOL Worked just fine and was super easy to clean up when we were done. (well, maybe not SUPER easy, we're all still walking around with red fingers...)
I took their fingers and pressed down on the tree, overlapping to make a heart shape.
I then used my trusty ATG gun to adhere the trees to the posterboard wherever I wanted them. this is what it looked like when I was done.
It just looked like it was missing something to me. I wish I had thought to put some green paper below for grass or something but alas, I didn't. I had some scrapbook paper that was covered in glittered clouds so I decided to cut a few of them out and add them above for a sky.
And here's our finished project. What do you think??
I LOVE IT!! I put it on my mantle and I'm going to decorate for Valentine's day later. I love that I have my girls' almost 4 and 5 year old handprints preserved forever. I know I'll look back at it someday and shed a tear at how little they once were.
