Baby Handprint and Footprint

Awhile back I found this cute idea on Pinterest.



http://crafts4lily.blogspot.com/2010/06/refacing-handprint.html


What a cute way to display a child's handprint! I pinned it and have waited months for our little man to arrive so we could make one too. I knew that I wanted to do a handprint and footprint, so we had to do a little shopping to find the perfect shadow box frame to display them in. We found this puppy at Michaels and it was even 40% off! I love when what I want is actually on sale!



Having a new baby is time consuming of course, so it took me a week to get around to starting it. Little man was just shy of one month by a day or two. I made a salt dough (don't worry, it is all sealed and varnished so it should last us!) and enlisted my husband to help get the prints.

The baby didn't mind letting us do his footprint, but goodness...his handprint was another story! This child always has his hands by his face; They are his comfort thing. I think it took us about 45 minutes of trying to steal his hand from his cheek, pry his fingers open, and sneak them into the dough. At some point, my husband realized little man was probably feeling the temperature difference of the dough so he warmed it up in his hand first. That did the trick! We had to cook it on 200 degrees in the oven for about 4 hours to get it to dry all the way through.  I found out that the dough really needs to be turned over halfway through to cook evenly.

Fast forward another week (hey, babies steal the free time right from under you!) and I painted them. I choose green and white since we have those colors throughout the main part of the house. It took a few coats of white and a few of the green. I also did about three coats of a varnish to seal and protect them. Next came the scrapbook paper for a background and some ribbon to hide the line where I had to piece together the paper. The frame is a few inches wider than my 12 x 12 paper. I also added this cute metal embellishment I found on clearance while we were out buying the frame. It says "Only little Once" and I thought it was fitting.

Here is the almost finished project, just waiting for Shutterfly to deliver our pictures.



We ordered this print in wallet size to add to our frame. This is little man at exactly one month.  I think he is kinda cute :)

All finished and I even managed to hang it up.  I would say this was a Pinterest inspiration success for sure!