After a week of pine cone crafts, we’re moving on to the final stretch of the 31 Days of Easy Crafts for Kids. During this home stretch, I’m going to encourage you to jump on the bandwagon and start crafting with your kids! Post the results on Facebook or Instagram and tag me! I’d love to see what you come up with together! We’re also moving the focus of our crafts to my favorite holiday…Christmas! Today, I’m sharing how we made a family handprint Christmas tree. This is my favorite project of the entire 31 Days. It’s something we’ll hang in our home at Christmastime for years to come. I love looking at the chubby little handprints of baby D, and the small handprints of the girls. I love how Brian’s handprint is on the bottom, the strongest part of the tree and mine surround his, supporting it with love. Making this project together was really special and I’ll always cherish the memories.
Family Handprint Christmas Tree Instructions
Preparation time: None
Project time: ~1 hour
Project cost: $$$ High
Parental involvement: High
Inspiration: Handprint Christmas Tree from Pinterest Told Me To
Supplies:
- Canvas
- Dark green acrylic paint
- Sponge brush
- Brown acrylic paint
- Medium sized paint brush
- Green fine glitter
- Gold fine glitter
- Glue
Preparation instructions:
- None
Step by step instructions:
- You’ll be doing this entire project with your children so get everyone in their grubbies (or their undies as the girls do at our house) and get ready to have some fun!
- Very lightly, draw the outline of where you want your tree to be on the canvas. I skipped this step and it still turned out okay, but if you’re a little under-confident, go ahead and do it.
- Start at the top with one of the smallest hands. I chose H’s because I knew she wouldn’t wiggle her fingers while I pressed her hand down and I wanted that top handprint to be perfect. Paint your child’s hand with green paint. Get it thick, but not gloppy or falling off. Stamp her hand where the top of the tree should be.
- Proceed to stamp the handprints of the rest of your children. For the bottom of the tree, include you and your husband’s hands. Make sure the tree is nice and full. Some of your children may have more than one (or even two) prints on the tree. We did, but that’s okay. 🙂
- Allow the paint to dry while you get all the kids and yourself cleaned up. Trust me, by the time that task is done, the paint will be dry!
- Paint a trunk on the bottom of the tree using the brown paint. Let dry.
- Using the glue, draw swooping lines across the tree. Sprinkle the green glitter on the glue. I really like the ultra fine glitter for this type of project. It makes it look more professional and less little-kiddish.
- Under the tree, go ahead and write your name and the year using the glue. Sprinkle with green glitter. Let all the green glitter glue dry. Shake off excess glitter. (Tip: Shake the glitter off onto a piece of paper or something else flexible ((I use my thin plastic cutting board)) so you can fold it tightly and dump the glitter back into the container.)
- On the top of the tree, draw a star with the glue. Sprinkle on the gold glitter. Let dry, then shake off excess.
- Hang and enjoy!
If you decide to make this beautiful handprint Christmas tree, be sure to come back and tell me about it! Take pictures and share them on my Facebook sharing post! I’d love to see what you and your little ones are making together!
This post is part of my 31 Days of Easy Crafts for Kids series. Be sure to check out the rest of the crafts I’m doing this month!
I like how that looks! Handprint crafts are always fun, especially when you can compare them year to year. (A Little R&R)
Great project! Thanks for sharing this idea at the blog link up. Blessings!
Beautiful idea! I love it! Please come join the link up at somuchathome.blogspot.com! I host a party each Wednesday. The link up parties last a whole week, so you can link up at any time. Feel free to link up as many posts as you’d like.
Gods bless.
Thank you!