Do you have someone in your life who brings you happiness and light? When I was young, I would spend the majority of my mornings with my grandparents. Every morning my grandma would call me her sunshine and often sing some of the lyrics from “You Are My Sunshine”. It always brightened my day and made me feel good about myself. It made me feel loved for who I was. This year for Mother’s Day I thought I would incorporate our morning conversations into my gift for her in hopes that it is as meaningful to her as it was to me.

Also, when thinking about my gift for her I took into consideration that she loves being a grandma, and sadly since she lives in another state, she doesn’t get to see all the milestones my kids are going through. This being said, I also wanted to document my kids’ growth in whatever gift I decided to do for her. After much thought and consideration, the result I came up with was a sun made from the footprints of my children decorated with the lyrics of “You Are My Sunshine.”

I started with a 20” x 24” canvas. Next, I painted it black with acrylic paint as the base. After it dried, I painted the heels of my children’s feet using a deep yellow acrylic paint, and I painted the toes and pad of the foot a lemon yellow. When painting their feet, I used one sponge brush so that the colors would blend. Having them sit in a chair I maneuvered their feet to stamp the canvas. I made sure to put each one of their feet opposite of their other foot so that each side of the sun would match.

When all the footprints had dried, I used the white acrylic paint pen to write the lyrics of “You Are My Sunshine.” As I was writing I did try to leave some space between the words and footprints for aesthetics. I was really impressed by how easy the paint pen was to use, and how much paint was in it. After covering the entire canvas with the white words there was still more paint in the pen. I did have to push it a couple times to keep the amount of paint consistent, but I did not run out at any point.

This was an easy project that should be able to be completed in as little as 45 minutes or less. If your kids are younger, or you have less than four kids, you could use a smaller canvas; and/or place the sun in the corner of the canvas where you aren’t making the entire circle. Overall, I was satisfied with this project, and I am very excited to gift it to my grandma.