How to make a handprint Christmas tree
Copying a child’s handprint — or footprint — can make cherished gifts for just about anyone. And most of us remember being young and making those school projects to bring home for parents and grandparents. The ones where we painted our hands, our fingers, sometimes the bottoms of our feet, so we could press them onto a sheet of heavy construction paper and make something out of the image.
For Thanksgiving, we posted a paint-based project similar to this one — only we were making handprint turkeys, not Christmas trees. We had so much fun creating the birds with our family that we decided to try our hands (literally) at this one: A handprint Christmas tree. And while there are lots of ideas on how to create a handprint Christmas tree floating around, we like this one because it gets everyone involved — young children, teenagers, moms, dads, grandparents. It’s a bit more involved than our Thanksgiving turkeys, but we think the final product will be well worth the time invested and will leave you with a piece of art work everyone will cherish more than any store bought gift.
Merry Christmas everyone!
The Flora Brothers Painting Family
What you need to make your handprint tree
- Paint — you can use water-based but bear in mind that water-based kids paints will fade with time. We suggest using a non-washable paint and having kids wear aprons or old t-shirts.
- Paint brushes or sponges
- Pens or colored pencils to decorate the tree once it’s dry (this is optional)
- Construction paper, heavy cardstock, or poster board depending on the size of the tree (and how many hands) you’re going to have
- Old t-shirts or aprons if using non-washable paints
Directions
- Once you know how many hands you have participating, decide whose hands are going to make which branches.
- Start with the bottom branches first — simply coat palms with paint, then press hand onto your chosen surface.
- After a few seconds, lift hand straight up to avoid smearing the paint. Continue this until the entire tree is created.
- Then after it dries, decorate it as you wish, and be sure to have people sign their names somewhere over their hand so years later you’ll always know whose handprint you’re looking at.
