Hand Print Valentines

Oliver and I got crafty and made Valentines for the family today.  When it comes to painting with Oliver the funnest way to go is hand prints (its a bit less messy too!).  I love seeing his little hands printed into all different colours and designs.  Since it is Valentines Day the most suiting design would be hearts... so we printed his hands upside down with his thumbs and pointer fingers together to make a heart with the space between his two hands.  That was the plan anyway!

What We Used:

- Card Stock

- Acrylic Paint

- Paper Plates

- And Little Hands

We took turns painting the paint onto his hands with a paint brush.  Then I help him press his hands down onto the card stock.  We did two different colours.  So we did one hand with one colour first, washed our hands and then did the other hand with the other colour.

Oliver choose the colours so the hand prints don't look very Valentine themed... but they do look cute.  And I love the heart it makes!

I had some card stock with a multi-coloured foot print border left over from some invitations I made a while ago.  I thought it looked cute with the hand prints and I tried to coordinate the colours with the coloured footprints.  Most of them were sucessful but their were a few where Oliver got caried away and the heart shape isn't completely visable.  But all in all Oliver did a pretty good job... now it was Mommy's turn to get creative.

I cut some hearts out of yellow card stock using the old "fold the paper in half and cut a hook shape which unfolds to make a heart" trick.  After a few tries I cut one that fit in the heart shape of Oliver's hands so I used that as a template and traced it on all the other folded card stock pieces.  I cut them all out and carried on.  I try to utilise every scrap piece of paper when making cards or scrap booking, so I used the folded pieces of card stock left over after cutting the heart on the back for a quick heart embelishment.

I stamped "be mine" with red ink on the little hearts... which I thought were so cute.  And "Valentine" on the back over top of of the heart cut out.

Then with a white button and a needle and thread I hand stitched the heart to the card right in the heart space that Oliver's hands created.

And that was out Valentine's Day craft!  I'm sure our family will love them and Oliver is super excited about handing them out and showing them off!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Be inspired...

Get Creative!