Baby Handprint and Footprint

It is absolutely true that children grow up too fast. I wanted to make some creative momento’s to remind me how tiny my son was when he was firstborn. However between a screaming colicky baby, the stress of trying to figure out why he was like he was, Doctors visits and coping with day to day life, by the time I was able to focus on it, my baby did not have tiny feet any more .

That’s why I say “be quick”. From the time you bring home that tiny baby from the hospital to the time they are all grown up and left school is such a hectic, busy and frantic time that the memories of how tiny their feet and hands were, can end up being just a memory.

I am offering here a number of ways to preserve the memories of your Babies tiny hand and footprints in a tangible way so that you will have these keepsakes forever.

In times gone by, parents used to keep babies first shoes and have them bronzed so they were preserved forever.

Now days there are many creative ways to showcase your baby’s footprints and handprints and make them into keepsakes for the grandparents and godparents and even for friends.

Some of the ideas you can do at home just using baby safe products, but if you would like a kit to help you, there are many available.

In this blog, I will show you 5 easy ways that you can use your creativity to make great baby keepsakes to preserve forever.

Have you ever though of making some very special Art using babies handprint or footprint to commemorate your new baby?

I love the idea of making some wonderful collages onto Canvas. These are really easy to do and will be a keepsake that you will have to keep for ever. Here’s how to make them.

1: Buy three 4 x 4” canvas’s from the Art supplies store.

2: Buy some metallic acrylic paints, I am thinking of wonderful Lumiere paints or folk art metallic paints. Choose the colors that you are called to and that will work in your house.

3: Also buy some printed tissue paper or a pack of paper napkins that work for your color scheme.

4: You will also need some watered down PVA glue. Any white glue should work for this. Just water it down a little to make it more like the consistency of milk.

5: You will also need some black non toxic acrylic paint for the footprints as well.

6: While baby is asleep, paint the canvas’s in the colors you have chosen. Make sure you cover the sides of the canvas as well as the fronts.

7: Now open some tissue paper, then screw it up till it is good and wrinkled. Now open it up again and rip it up into small pieces.

8: Using your diluted PVA, glue the ripped tissue on to the canvas’s. You can overlap the tissues and generally make a collage with them. Once you are happy with how they look, put them away safely and let them dry.

9: The next step is to paint Babies foot with black paint and stamp them onto the canvas. I like to date the canvas as well.

10: If you would like to you can do Babies Handprints on another of the three canvas’s.

11: Or, if you have patience you can do the footprints every month for 3 months so you can show how fast baby has grown. That way you have three canvas’s that can be hung together.

Your Babies Journal is a very important part of your new Babies history and keepsakes.

You may decide to buy one that is already made or you may even be given a beautiful Journal at your Baby Shower. However, if you are creative and artistic you could decide to make one from scratch.

If you do decide to make one yourself, do use the best heavy Watercolor Paper and the best cardstock. By using your imagination you could have the most unique Baby Journal around.

Choose as many signatures as you need and hand sew them into the spine of the journal with Linen cord.

For the cover you can really go to town, using quilting, fabric collage, paper collage, beading and more. If you buy a Handprint or footprint rubber stamp you can also decorate the pages and the cover with that. You may even decide to bead all inside the stamp in pastel colors just to make it even more beautiful and unique.

I love the idea of using real pockets off second hand baby clothes as pockets in the Journal to hold even more memories. Maybe a lock of hair from Babies first haircut, Babies first bib and wonderful photographs that you collect along the way.

When Babies is about 20 months old you can start having creative sessions when he or she dips their fingers in non toxic acrylic paints and puts handprints and finger paints on paper. You can also preserve these first works of art in the journal.

Share these ideas with your friends and see what other ideas you can come up with to fill that wonderful Baby Journal with all the amazing memories you can.

I think the first concern is always for your babies safely, so make sure you buy a non-toxic stamp pad to start with.

Before you start, think carefully about what your goal is here. Do you intend to make a number of prints at once or would you rather just get one set and scan them and use the scan to print out as many copies as you need?

I would start with a well-fed sleepy baby. It would be best if you had already gathered everything you need and have them together on a table including wipes for you baby’s hands and feet.

You will also need good quality Cardstock and paper.

The best idea is to actually stamp Baby’s feet onto the ink pad and then press the card onto Babies feet. Try not to wriggle the foot around at all, and if the card gets stuck, pull the babies foot off the card not the other way around.

Now give it a good long time to dry before you try to use it…………..maybe 24-48 hrs. However don’t let Babies foot dry, get started with the wipes ASAP or else you will find yourself explaining the color of his hands to everyone you come in contact with for a few days.

The prints would look wonderful in a frame and would make a lovely gift to give to grand parents and friends.

Have you ever thought of using tiny casts of your baby’s footprints and handprints to decorate your Christmas Tree? This is a wonderful creative idea if your Baby comes into the world around Christmas.

What about just having a beautiful cast sitting in a special place in your lounge room or even hanging on the wall?

The plaster casts are a bit more messy than simple ink prints, but still fun to have. Another option is to buy Polymer Clay, which can be cured with the air or in the oven. This way you can choose white or any color you fancy really.

Once again, I think its best to have a well-fed and sleepy baby and have all the things you need in place before you start. If you are using Plaster, please make sure that it is baby friendly and non- toxic.

This time its best to roll out the Polymer Clay and just have baby step into it while you hold home upright. The great thing about this clay is that if you make a mistake or if the foot wriggles you can just smooth it out and start again. There will be no wastage this way.

If you want to hang your cast then don’t forget to pierce a hole in the top with a large needle before you cook the clay, then later on when the cast is cold again you can tie a beautiful piece of silk ribbon through it to hang it on a wall. At the Craft shop you will find many kinds of Polymer Clays to choose from. Sculpy or Super Sculpy will work great. Fimo would also work great although it can be harder to mold. Just go by the decorations on the pack as far as temperature of your oven is concerned and you will be fine.

I hope you have lots of fun making your cast.