Reading through my other posts I bet you would never guess that I love handprints and footprints! I mean, I have only written 5 or 6 posts about print projects within the first two weeks of launching my website… Okay, in all seriousness I love them, always have. One year when my older daughters were in Kindergarten and Preschool, for Mother’s Day, they brought home a frame with their handprints and a quote. I loved it so much that I made one for my son who was just a baby at the time. Then when my third daughter was born, I wanted the same for her, but I couldn’t justify having the same quote in four different frames taking up space in our small apartment. It was then I decided I would store their original pictures and create one that had all their handprints.

I went into Word on the computer, set the page to a landscape format, entered an oval as big as I could on the page with a black outline, and then entered a text box inside the oval to put the quote that I love so much. The quote reads:

“Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small, and always leave my fingerprints on the furniture and walls. But every day I am growing. I’ll be grown someday, and all these tiny handprints Will surely fade away. So, here’s a little handprint just so you can recall Exactly how my fingers looked when I was very small.”

I love this quote because the days can be so long and frustrating, but they are fleeting. Our kids are only small for so long, and if we don’t try to enjoy the little moments they will be gone before we know it.

Once the quote is formatted in the text box in a way that is appealing to you, you print it and cut it out. Then I got a 16” by 20” frame, and I’ll tell you a secret, I used the paper that was already in the frame since it wasn’t see-through; however, you can find poster boards and cut them as needed. Once I had the white base (the size of the frame) I glued on a plain black piece of paper in the middle and glued the oval with the quote in the middle of the paper using a glue stick. After everything was stuck on the paper, I had my kids pick the color of acrylic paint they wanted, and I painted their hands with a sponge brush. Since I have four kids I put one handprint in each corner. As you can tell from the picture my daughter, who was a baby at the time, squeezed her hand together. I left it the way it was for memory’s sake, but when it is wet, it can be wiped off with a slightly damp washcloth.

I now have this picture hanging in my living room. It is a daily reminder of how fast the kids grow, and to remember to be patient with them. This project was done 2-years-ago now, and I can definitely say their handprints have grown significantly in that short amount of time.

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Links:

Glue Sticks: https://amzn.to/3vU8PBB

Sponge Brush: https://amzn.to/3KJMVoJ