A new twist on Childs handprint...

I see ideas all the time on Pinterest of cute crafts to do with your child's hand. They're all adorable but I always think of how hard that would be to dip my child's hand in paint and carefully place it on an ornament, or even flat on a piece of paper! Older children would be easier but a 20 month old...not so much.

 

I seen a photo similar to this particular craft. It was using an adult hand and it was a little more sophisticated looking. I wanted mine to be simple and raw.

 

First you must always sharpen a new pencil, because in this house sharpened pencils run away....so do pencil sharpeners. Oddly enough though, pocket knives seem to multiply.

Luckily I had two pieces of sketch paper left from way back when I use to draw.

 



Next I showed my child how much fun it is to hold your hand in place! This step took several tries (hence my hesitation to purposely putting paint on those wiggly little things!)

 



 

After tracing the paw lightly, I then started drawing lines across the paper. Rulers run away from this house too so I stole my sons wooden puzzle to use. He wasn't happy about me borrowing it so I had to move to the dining room table.

 

 

Here's where it starts to get tricky. Where the lines are of the paw you draw a curved line. I wish I had taken this step more seriously and really curved the crap outta those lines! You'll see why later...

 

 

Obliviously the paw didn't want me to center it on the paper, so I just measured best I could to center it to be an 8x10.

 

 

Next I traced over the pencil lines with sharpie.

You can see the paw coming to life...

 

Next I choose to do Rainbow colors, so I counted out how many spaces there were and divided it up so it was evenly across the paw.

If you look closely from the last photo to the next, you'll see I ended up adding lines in between. The paw wasn't sticking out as well as I'd hoped, this is why I'd wished I'd emphasized the curves.

 

Its not as perfect as I'd like it to be. If only I had curved the lines more it'd really make that paw stand out! If I do another, I'll definitely CURVE more!!! But I really like it. It's unique and different, plus colorful much like the owner of this adorable little paw :)

On the back I wrote his name and the date. Soon I'll frame it and hang it in his room.