Create a lovely handprint keepsake with your child with this easy activity.
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by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
I do love capturing moments in our lives by creating a lasting keepsake…the clay footprints that we did with our children when they were 9 weeks old, framed items from our wedding day and the picture with shells that we collected from our holidays.
I have been meaning to create some keepsake stepping-stones for our garden for absolutely ages…..with Daddy on hand to help, today was definitely the day!
What You’ll Need
We prepared our concrete as directed in the instructions, making sure that we wore our protective gloves and face masks. After smoothing it carefully into our moulds we gave them a quick tap to settle the mix and then set about making our stones.
With some Vaseline on their feet to protect their skin we created some little prints and then used glass pebbles to decorate them.
Fab!
They look a little dark right now so we’ll have to see how they turn out when they are dry and painted….updates to follow later 🙂
A memory to keep in our garden forever 🙂
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Activity Time: 15 minutes
Day #69 DONE! 31 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
So I just couldn’t resist…….we had more cards to make and Izzy was very cheery this afternoon!
What You’ll Need
Wet cloth at the ready….!
Once again we squidged little toddler toes into the painty sponge – this time she was ready for me though and the hands went in too – oops!
Izzy looked a bit like the Incredible Hulk – unfortunately there are no photos I’m afraid as I was trying to fend her off from happily painting me too – there were huge squeals of delight as she tried to chase me around the room with her painty hands!
Eeeeek!
So after lots of giggles we got cleaned up a bit and got back on track with our cards….
We had pre-folded our cards into an A5 size again and placed them on the counter ready to be printed on.
Ta Dah!
Very Merry Mistletoes! (and a very happy memory)
Cards done!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Activity Time: 10 minutes
Day #60 DONE! 40 to go!
Sara x
Original tutorial found on Pinterest (by Kailee Smith)
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
Next on our ‘to do’ list is Christmas cards!
When it comes to our children I will always insist that they make their Christmas cards to give to our extended family – until they reach their teens anyway and then it’s up to them 🙂
Receiving any sort of present is just wonderful, but the ones I love the most are the homemade ones. I know just how busy people are and to receive something that they have taken time out of their hectic lives to make just for me makes me love and appreciate it so much more.
So Izzy…..time we got those ‘tooties’ out and made our first lot of Christmas cards!!
What You’ll Need
We used our ‘tried and tested’ method of how to prepare paint for handprints or footprints. You can of course simply use a paintbrush to get the paint onto a child’s hand or foot, but by using a sponge you just seem to get a more even coverage, create less mess and even use less paint – plus who doesn’t like squidging their feet into a painty sponge 🙂
We had pre-folded our card into an A5 size and placed them on the counter ready to be printed on – make sure you have a wet cloth handy to wipe painty baby feet afterwards otherwise you may end up covered in it!
Ta Dah!
2 perfect footprints ready for decorating……..
Hey Ruldoph!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Activity Time: 10 minutes
Day #59 DONE! 41 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
So we’ve been quite focused on actual ‘makes’ for a while that I thought we’d just go back to basics today and explore…..
I grabbed my bag of air-dry clay, a splash suit and off we went!
We squished our clay, added some water, and just played…..we rolled the clay and made strange shapes out of it.
“Squish Mummy!”
Izzy was very intrigued with the squidgy grey stuff and kept poking it with her fingers and trying to put her feet in it.
Boo wanted to do footprints and use a paintbrush and glue spreader to make marks in the clay…..
The aim was never to actually ‘make’ anything today.………just memories 🙂
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Activity Time: 15 minutes
Day #56 DONE! 44 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
Izzy always loves to sit and watch Boo and I during our ‘creative’ time – when she’s not stealing some quiet cuddle time with Daddy that is!
Over the next few weeks I have some lovely creative, sensory activities planned for just me and her to explore, but on this quiet afternoon after classes we decide to keep it fairly mess-free and make some painty feet flowers…
What You’ll Need
We prepared the painty sponge the same way as before in ‘Butterfly Baby’ and our other printing activities. Izzy wiggles her toes every time we do painty prints – she giggles and then scrunches her feet into the sponge so that the paint squidges between her toes.
We printed onto the card and after the paint had dried Mummy did a bit of drawing to finish off our artwork……
Ta Dah!!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Activity Time: 5 minutes
Day # 49 DONE! 51 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
Friday mornings are always a bit of a struggle in our house. Our children are normally dragging their feet around, feeling the effects of their busy week and we really need to be out of the door on time so that everyone gets where they need to be at the right time.
Today was extra hard because the weather was just awful and you really start missing the Summer when you have to begin piling the warm weather layers onto two wriggly children 🙂
Bring on the weekend!
When we got home today I was getting our activity ready when I suddenly thought that maybe I should ask Boo what he wanted to do today. He normally goes with whatever I decide to put in front of him but it’s a shared learning journey so its time he got to lead a little…
‘Paint Mummy!
‘Feet Mummy!’
So it’s a case of rinse and repeat our make from yesterday!
Not very original but he was certainly a very happy little boy – the perfect end to a hectic week 🙂
To make it a bit different we decided that instead of rockets, this time we would make his painty prints into one of his favourite things – tractors!!
Day #46 DONE! 54 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
Bonfire night certainly went off with a bang yesterday!! We sat at our living room window with the lights turned off and watched the sparkly, fiery rockets launching into the sky and exploding in a shower of twinkly lights.
For today’s activity I thought that Boo might like to kick off his socks and get his feet all painty…..rockets away!
What You’ll Need
We used the same method as we did in ‘Butterfly Baby’ and prepared our paint sponge ready to make some foot prints.
Boo put his foot on the sponge and immediately got the giggles…..’Cold Mummy!’ ‘Squish, Squish!’
We placed his foot onto the piece of card and voila!
Painty perfection!
Now with a little bit of ‘Mummy collage’ – with Boo as chief gluer – we give you……
‘Racing Rockets!’
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Activity Time: 10 minutes
Day #45 DONE! 55 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
Boo was happily playing with his train set this evening so I thought Izzy might enjoy a bit of creative time with Mummy. Time for some spooky baby feet!
What You’ll Need
Just like in Day #9 ‘Butterfly Baby’ we poured some paint onto the plate and squished the sponge on top before turning it over – ready to get messy!
Izzy enjoyed squidging her feet onto the painty sponge before we placed them both onto the card side by side. A quick wipe of the feet and Izzy was off to play again.
I let the paint dry for about 30 minutes and then used the marker pen to draw the spooky faces!
Ta Dah! Very Spooky!
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Activity Time: 5 minutes
Top Tip! – Have some wet wipes or a damp cloth handy to wipe your baby’s feet – or do the activity just before bath time 🙂
Day #29 DONE! 71 to go!
Sara x
by Sara le Roux, Owner and Inspirer at The Creation Station Penistone and District
So I really didn’t mean to start a butterfly theme but I thought that it was high time my other ‘Little Explorer’ got in on the creative fun…introducing Izzy!
Something I’ve always liked to do with our children is to get them to ‘make’ the gifts that they give to people. We’ve done the ‘Paint A Pot’ mugs at Christmas and the paint hand print santa cards, but the nicest thing that we have made was a footprint butterfly with Izzy last Christmas.
This is a great activity because:
What You’ll Need
Pour your paint onto a plate in 3 or 4 stripes. Place the sponge on top and give it a good squidge around and then turn it over.
Gently press your little one’s foot onto the painty sponge and give them a moment or two to enjoy the sensation of the paint on their foot – Izzy always loves this bit and wiggles her toes around whilst watching the colours on her feet.
Place their foot gently onto the card/canvas and then lift off. After a quick wipe, switch to the other foot.
When the paint is dry you can add a ‘body’ with the marker pen.
This is a lovely activity but I would suggest having a few sheets of card to hand so that you can practice. We managed to do this last Christmas….
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Activity Time: 10 minutes
Day 9 DONE! 91 to go!
Sara x
Enjoy Creative Fun 