As my little one gets older, I am looking for ways to “measure his growth”.  One of the best ways I have found has been by using his hands & feet to make art!  There are so many amazing ideas using littles ones fingers, handprints, and footprints to commemorate the seasons throughout the year.  We decided to tackle Thanksgiving last year and made a few fun items using our hands and feet.

We travel to family each year for Thanksgiving, so we decided to make a “Thank You” plaque with our handprint turkeys.  We had so much fun making them, we dug out a few t-shirts to make turkeys on too!

Handprint Turkey

Items Needed:

• All-purpose Acrylic Craft Paint in various colors (we used blue, green, brown, orange, yellow, red, and purple)
• sponge paint brushes
• paper plates for the paint
• sharpie marker
• blank canvas, t-shirts, paper (objects you’d like to paint)

Steps:

1. Holding the child’s hand flat, “paint” their fingers each a different color to represent the feathers and the palm of their hand a solid color for the turkey’s body.
2. Ask the child to stretch their hand out as wide as possible and quickly press their hand onto the canvas/shirt.
3. Gently press each finger down one at a time but avoid rolling them, or you will not see the true shape of their adorable fingers.
4. Allow the art to dry before adding any embellishments.  We discreetly wrote our names and ages next to the turkeys (one for each child) and added a title to our canvas.  You can also add a beak, eyes, etc. to give your turkey a bit more personality.

I also wanted something that was a bit more lasting, so I went to our local ceramics shop to make a Thanksgiving platter using my then 2-year old’s precious hands and feet. This is certainly a project that can be repeated at home as well.

Handprint Turkey Platter

Items Needed:

• All-purpose Acrylic Craft Paint in various colors (we used blue, green, brown, orange, yellow, red, and purple)
• sponge paint brushes
• paper plates for the paint
• sharpie marker
• blank plate, canvas, t-shirts, paper (objects you’d like to paint)

Steps:

1. Holding the child’s hand flat, “paint” their their entire hand one color to represent the feathers.
2. Ask the child to stretch their hand out as wide as possible and quickly press their hand onto the plate/canvas/shirt.
3. Gently press each finger down one at a time but avoid rolling them, or you will not see the true shape of their adorable fingers.
4. Wash hands and repeat 4-5 times on the canvas with different colors, placing the handprints in a semi-circle.
5. With help, paint the child’s foot brown or black and repeat the above process.  You may want one adult to lift the child/hold their feet up, while the other ensures the foot makes contact with the canvas/plate,  Make sure to have the toes lined up with the bottom of the plate/canvas.
6. Allow the art to dry before adding any embellishments. We added eyes and a beak to the heel to make it a turkey head.

And there you have two easy and fun keepsakes to pull out each Thanksgiving!