I am a huge fan of hand (and foot) print art projects for kids.  They are fun for the kid and I love looking back at how L’s hands and feet have grown over the years.

I also think they make cute, personalized gifts and cards!

We are doing a Letter of the Week “program” (and yes, I use that word very, VERY loosely!) and when we got to “H” I thought a hand print tree would be a fun activity, plus we fit it in for fall and made it one of the fall projects we display in our frame!

This was super, easy to do.

You’ll need:

• White paper
• Construction paper (I didn’t have brown for the trunk so I used black)
• Paint (I used red, green, orange and yellow because that’s what I had in fall colors)
• A paint brush
• Paper plate
• Wipes (lots and LOTS of wipes)

First, make a tree trunk using the construction paper.  Mine does NOT look that great at all, but hey, it’s a toddler art project.  Glue it onto your white paper.

Next I got L all ready to get his hands messy!  Because I had six branches on my trunk and four colors I decided to do two of two colors and one of the remaining two.  I let L decided which colors we’d use more of!  I also used both hands just because (but using one would probably make it easier).

Just apply the paint to their hand using a brush and press downward.  We’ve done a lot of these types of projects so we’ve got a pretty good system at this point, but the first few times doing this with a toddler can be tricky (especially if your toddler is anything like mine!).

I just let it dry and that was that!  We have an adorable fall tree hanging in one of L’s artwork frames in our kitchen.

Do you do Hand Print Art?  What are some of your favorites?  I’d love to see photos!