Mother's Day

Last weekend, it was Mother's day! If you are looking for a cute keepsake for Mom, here is a great, easy, relatively cheap project to do. I bought a 2-pack of thick 9x12 canvases from Hobby Lobby (woo hoo for 40% off coupons!). Pick a couple of colors of acrylic paint and buy one tube of each. I picked out a bright turquoise color for the background and white for the hand and footprints.  Overall, the entire project cost less than $10 and I’ll have two super cute gifts made by Sydney to give to her Mom and Grandma. The overall idea is to paint the word “Love” on the canvas with a hand print being the letter “o” and two footprints making the letter “v.”

Canvas, foam paint brush, and two tubes of acrylic paint

First step, prep your area with some newspapers or old magazines. I did a coat of turquoise paint on both canvases, including the sides. The first coat ends up being a little streaky looking, but that’s OK because you’ll go over it again with a second coat and that will even things out.



Give it an hour or so to dry completely and then give it another coat of paint. Keep in mind this is acrylic paint and is PERMANENT. Make sure you wash your hands right away afterwards with soap and water to remove any paint from your hands. Wear old clothes so you don’t have to worry about staining anything.

After the first coat of paint

The next step is a little tricky. You’ll need at least two people to tackle this job. I recruited Sydney’s super awesome child care providers. I also brought an old washrag to wash Sydney’s hands and feet.

With the white paint and a small paintbrush, paint one of the child’s hands and carefully make a hand print where the “o” in the word “Love” will be on your canvas. If you are making multiples canvases (like I am), do the other hand print right away since you already have the child’s hand messy! You will have to add more paint before doing the second print. Have one person hold onto the child’s wrist to prevent any hand flailing and paint flying. Hopefully, you’ll get a nice spread out hand print with the fingers clearly visible. Some younger children might have more of a blob looking print because they like to put their fingers into little fists.

After washing up the child’s hand, then it’s time to tackle the feet. Take off socks and shoes, roll up the child’s pants (or take them off completely) and have one person hold the child’s ankle still while the other person gently paints the child’s foot with white paint. Both teachers can help lift up the child and place the child’s footprint on the canvas. Then, do the other footprint to complete the letter “v.”

Painting the "L" and "e" on after the prints dried

Let both of these completely dry before tackling the “L” and “e.” I like to wait to do those two letters last in case the hand or footprints go crazy and end up not quite where you want them. With a thin brush, paint the “L” and “e” onto the canvas and let dry. You’re done! If you’d like, you can put the child’s name and year on the front (but at the very least, put it on the back) so you can remember when your child’s hand and feet were that small. 

Finished product!