Handprint Valentines

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and yesterday I got a wild hare to make a few valentines with Amelia. I used to make a lot of holiday crafts, even after I left my school library job, but now I’ve got a valid excuse to get out the glue and construction paper: adorable baby hands! Valentine’s Day was made for arts and crafts, especially if itty bitty hands are involved.

Off to Pinterest I went, looking for ideas. I didn’t want to buy any new supplies, and I wanted to involve Amelia in some way. A lot of cute hand or footprint ideas involved paint or glitter… no thanks! Finally I found this pin:

In half an hour, I had cards ready and in the mail to the grandparents: now that’s what I call a Pinterest success!

Supplies:

paper – white and/or colored
scissors
glue stick
sharpie or marker
hands

This one is so easy, I’ll let the pictures do the explaining:

Tip: Trace the hand with the thumb and forefinger on the fold line. With a wiggly baby, I found that putting her in the front-facing carrier and holding her hand down on top of the counter worked best. Once you cut out one handprint, you can use the outline to trace more copies. For maximum efficiency, make an accordion fold to cut out multiple copies from one sheet of paper. I liked the look of white handprints on a colored paper background, but in photographs it’s harder to see the writing (bad blogger, oops!).

Voila! Now this love bug is ready for Valentine’s Day 🙂

Looking back at past valentines crafts on the blog, they’re all simple and no-mess: perfect for last-minute crafting if you want to make a batch and put them in the mail this weekend.