A handful of Thanks!!

We made thank you cards for Em's birthday guests. There is something I love about a child's hand print. My mom still has my preschool handprints hanging on one of her walls. It has always been my favorite childhood art piece.

We used a few art supplies we had around the house: kids paint, paintbrushes, and card stock cut up to any size you prefer( When I cut mine I kept envelope size in mind).

Find an area around the house that can get messy. I chose outside because the weather was nice. If I did this inside our house, I would sit at the table or on the floor and put a tarp under us to allow for an easier clean up.

Once we were set up outside, Emery chose a few colors and we went to work. I painted her hand with a good coating of paint. I then placed her hand straight down on one of the card stock pieces.

To make a full print I gently pressed on each finger. I talked with her about doing her best to not wiggle as I did this. It worked for the most part :)

I gently pressed on the bottom, than on the top.

After pressing each finger, I also pressed lightly on the area above the palm. Then lifted her hand straight up. She eventually took over this step as we made each card. This is what it looked like.

We did a few in this color and then I cleaned off her hand so we could do another color. The paint cleans off easy because its kids washable paint. I used a different paintbrush though so I didn't have to clean the brush during our project. My child is a little too fast paced to wait through that. After all the cards were done I let the cards dry in the sun. While they dried I cleaned up and she played in the yard. Once the cards were dry, Em put stickers on the back of each card. She had a pirate party so we tried to use pirate stickers. Once we got started she thought of adding personal touches. Like on Grandma Michelle's card she used convertible stickers. It turned in to her picking stickers for each person on our list. So cute & emergent learning at the same time :) After the stickers were added, I wrote a message in the blank area.

I also wrote the words thank you on the front. We mailed a few and also delivered a few. It ended up feeling  very personal and it cost us nothing...well maybe a few stamps :)