Valentine’s Day is a perfect day for handprint and footprint crafts. Hands make the perfect “O” in “LOVE” and feet make the perfect “V.”
Last year, we did just that, using footprints to spell out “L-O-V-E.” I loved it so much that it sits in my kitchen all year round. Those little toddler feet are just too cute.
But Little Mister’s feet are no longer little toddler feet. They have grown and will not fit cutely on the canvas to spell out love. The V would overwhelm the L, O, and E! LOVE would become LOVE, and that’s just not quite right.
So instead, this year, we are going to focus on handprints. You know Little Mister loves to do handprint crafts. Obviously we’ve been doing them forever because he’s become quite the pro. When I try to do finger painting with him, he just starts slapping his hand down repeatedly because he thinks it’s one big handprint craft!
Which led perfectly to this craft!
If you remember the Christmas tree craft, this will be right up the road for you! We are going to use tape to spell out “LOVE” and then, while the tape is in place, place handprints all over the paper. We are going to use 3 different colors of paint to make a layered effect.
Supplies:
- Red, pink, and white finger paint
- Small canvas (You can use heavy card stock, but I recommend canvas because of how much paint will be used.)
- Paintbrushes or foam brushes
- Pie tin or paper plate (to hold paints)
- Masking tape
- Cut-out heart (I recommend waiting until you have the L-V-E written before cutting this out. See why below.)
The first thing you will want to do is use the masking tape to spell out L-V-E. Make sure you leave a space for where the heart will go in place of the “O.” Once you have these letters down, use a heavy duty cardstock or thin sheet of cardboard to create the heart. I like to cut a slightly larger-than-needed heart and then line it up between the L and V and trim it down to the right size.
Once you have the heart cut, use the masking tape to tape it down. I roll a couple of pieces of tape and tape it to the underside of the heart so that the tape won’t be showing. Now you should have LOVE spelled with a heart on your blank canvas. Prep the paints and brushes and get your little one ready to paint.
One thing I love about this activity is that, if you have multiple kids, they can all contribute to a single canvas. It can get really pricey purchasing multiple canvases (not to mention trying to find a place to store it all). Having them all add to one canvas will make it a cute family project!
The first color you are going to use is the red. Paint a hand red and have your little one make handprints all over the canvas. It’s ok if they overlap a bit. Make sure they start to cover some of the edges of the tape letters and heart. We still have 2 colors to go, so not all the edges need to be covered. About 4-5 handprints in red, depending on the size of your canvas and size of your child’s hand, is a good estimate for this color. Let the red paint layer dry and prep for the pink layer!
You’re going to repeat the step you just did, but this time with pink handprints. They can overlap some of the red hand prints, but also try to cover more of the white space and edges of the letters that weren’t previously painted on. You will only need about 3 handprints for this layer. Now you have pink handprints overlapping red handprints! Make sure that all the edges of the heart and LOVE are painted during this layer (since the white won’t help define the letters). Let this pink layer dry and get ready for the final, white layer of handprints.
The top, final layer is white handprints. It is incredibly important that the previous two layers are completely dry before you start this layer as the white will bleed the red and pink if there is any wet paint. You’re going to repeat the same things you did for the previous two steps, but only one or two handprints. You want to still make sure that there is some red and pink showing through at the end! It is also important to make sure that you use enough paint. Unlike the red and pink, you have to use a lot of white paint and press the hand lightly into the canvas to keep it from squishing out. This will ensure that the white handprints remain darker and show up. You can see in ours that, though you can see white paint, I still could have used even more!
After all the paint is dry, carefully peel away the masking tape and remove the heart. LOVE will be what remains, outlined by handprints of your little ones!
Have fun with this craft – and don’t forget to label with the year!