This Hand Print Art Is The Perfect Mother’s or Father’s Day Gift
It’s the time of year where we celebrate parents for all the hard work, love, and sleepless time they put in to making sure their kids have the best life possible. What better way to say “Thank You” than to give them a gift literally made from the hands of the kids that make them parents?
Now, when it comes to presenting the gift you can either gift all the materials and make the craft together, or you can secretly make it and surprise mom or dad with the final product. I’m not sure which I love more…I made this with my 2 year old and LOVED how fun it was to get our hands dirty making this piece together. Every time I look at it I’ll be reminded of the fun afternoon we had making it together. But I also think it would be so fun to make something like this for my spouse and watch his face light up when he sees those tiny hand prints that made such a beautiful piece of art.
If you’ve got smaller kids at home, chances are you have some paint at home already so really, the only thing you’ll need to purchase for this is the canvas. And in all reality, you could do this on a piece of paper or cardstock and put it in a frame too – there are ways to get adorable art and gifts out of what you have at home (please say I’m not the only one with a pile of unused picture frames because they were just too cute not to buy).
Even though you could make this with what you have around the use, below I’ve listed what I used to make these adorable hand print art pieces.
| Item | Cost |
| Finger Paint | $11.97 |
| Canvas | $1.69 |
| Masking Tape | $3.88 |
| Other Options | |
| Canvas Pad | $9.99 |
And here is your step-by-step guide to making hand print artwork:
1. Prep your canvas. I made two versions of the hand print art and each has a different prep step.
Hand Print Heart – To prep for this piece I printed out a picture of a heart and cut the heart out of the middle. When that was done I taped it to my canvas and covered up any remaining exposed canvas with masking tape. Make sure to pull the paper taut so that you get the heart shape.
I ❤️ U – To prep for this piece I used masking tape to spell “I ❤️ U” on the canvas (you can of course make any message you want so feel free to make it personal). It took me a couple tries with the heart to get it to look just right. I filled in the inside of the heart with more masking tape. Make sure the tape is secure to ensure little fingers don’t pull it off while painting.
If you’re gifting the experience, you could do this step ahead of time so mom or dad can just dive into the action!
2. Prep the paint. I used four different paint colors. To ensure my toddler wouldn’t mix all the paint together (resulting in an adorable brown heart) I put each color on its own paper plate.
NOTE: If you have a place in mind that you are going to hang this and want the colors to “go” with your decor, you can always use paint colors accordingly.
3. Get painting! I helped my toddler by holding his hand and stamping it on the canvas. This was the only way I could ensure that adorable, chubby hand would show up in the final product. If you don’t care so much about getting that hand print then I say let them run wild and finger paint away, but note that this may result in a torn heart so maybe just let them run wild with the masking tape message to get the best results.
4. Let the artwork dry. The drying time will depend on how thick the paint is so be patient.
5. Once dry you can remove the heart and the masking tape and check out what your adorable little nugget made for you!
Depending on your kids age, you could have them sign their artwork like a true artist. If they can’t sign it themselves you could always write their name and the year on the piece as well so that you can remember how young they were when they made this. I prefer a clean piece of art so I decided not to write names on it (though I may add his name and year on the back just so I can remember when he made it).
6. Hang and enjoy proudly! Find the perfect place to display this priceless piece of art!
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