My Little Handprints

Lorina

A hand print keep sake which includes a poem. 

Materials Needed:

• Colourful paints (red, yellow, purple etc.)
• A piece of A4 white cardboard/thick paper
• Bowls (required for each paint colour)
• A paintbrush (for each paint colour)
• A damp cloth
• A dry cloth
• “My Little Handprints” poem

What to do:

• Keep aside an A4 piece of cardboard for baby.
• Write any of the following poems on the piece of cardboard (or) type and stick it on each piece of cardboard.

Poem 1:

Sometimes you get discouraged

Because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

On furniture and walls.

But everyday I’m growing

I’ll be grown up someday

And all those tiny handprints

Will surely fade away.

So here’s a final handprint

Just so you can recall

Exactly how my fingers looked

When I was very small

Poem 2:

There used to be so many

Of my finger prints to see

On furniture and walls and things

From sticky, grubby me.

But if you stop and think awhile

You’ll see I’m growing fast

These little moments disappear

You can’t bring back the past.

So here is a small reminder

To keep, not throw away

Of tiny hands and how they looked

To make you smile someday.

• Squeeze each paint colour in a separate bowl, add a paint brush and place it on a table.
• Hold baby’s hand. Using the paintbrush paint your baby’s free hands.
• Help baby to make a hand print on the cardboard (under the poem or on either side of the poem). When positioning hand onto the paper, press down firmly to get a hand print.
• Make a print of the other hand.
• Hang it up to dry.
• Wipe baby’s hand with the damp cloth and then re-wipe with the dry cloth.

Hints and Tips:

• A great creative idea to use at a party. Follow the same method as above and each baby can take it home as a keep sake item.
• Be sure to watch your baby, so they don’t put their painted hands in their mouth.
• Once this dries, you could frame it.
• Each birthday do a “hand print” as a memento and to compare growth (you don’t need to use the poem).
• You can even use the "My Hand print Template" available under Templates section in this website which has a designed template for My Handprints and My Footprints with a poem included.