Grow with Me Handprint Art

Before Sweetpea was born I had all these fanciful ideas of preserving her every breathing moment. After she was born, reality hit and my “free time” to craft was rededicated to catching up on sleep or laundry {and maybe a few mindless hours playing Words with Friends). Needless to say, while I have taken tons of pictures and videos of her from day one, I have not spent much time crafting a keepsake… until two months ago.

Two months ago, I FINALLY created her “Grow with Me Handprint Art”.  I really wanted to start this with her newborn handprint, but alas…it didn’t happen, so I started with her 4 month old handprint instead {sigh}. Each year, on her birthday {give or take 4 months}, I plan to retrace her hand over the previous year's handprint - creating a piece of art from her growing hand.

Tools: 

8 x 10 Canvas Panel, Tissue Paper, Mod Podge, Acrylic Paint, 8 x 10 Frame (not pictured), Scrapbooking letters (not pictured), paint brushes and the cutest, little, pudgiest hand ever (not pictured)

Step One:

I am not a fan of untextured canvas. It just irks me. It is a personal thing and I wouldn't hold it against anyone if they chose to skip this step. But for me, I took a piece of tissue paper and balled it up several times. Once I got to my desired texture, I pasted the tissue paper on the canvas using Mod Podge.

Step Two:

After your tissue paper thoroughly dries, paint the canvas with your desired color. I went with beige {because I am boring like that}. 

Step Three:

After the paint dries, trace your darling baby's hand in the center of the canvas. Now, if you can actually do this, kudos to you!!  I couldn't. Her wiggly hand just wouldn't bend that way, nor would it stay in one spot long enough for me to trace it. Sooo, step 3b, called for tracing her hand onto copy paper while she was sleeping! That worked!

Step Four:

Trace the handprint on your painted canvas with pencil, then trace that outline with a paint pen. Be sure to add the age of your child at the time of the tracing.

Step Five:

Using Scrapbooking letters, spell out your child's name at the top of the canvas, then frame and display!

I wonder how much larger her hand will look in six more months when I trace it again!?! Ohhhh.....it makes me cry just thinking about it!!!