Tracing Hands Project

Handprint projects are my favorite. I love when my son comes home from school with anything that has his handprint on it. These are things we'll treasure when the kids have grown. This super easy project is a little different than your traditional dipping a hand in paint and then pressing it on paper type project. It's easier and less messy.

What you will need:

* Scissors

* Decorative Paper (Scrapbooking Paper is Perfect)

* Frame and Matting

* Pencil

I purchased a simple, inexpensive matted frame from Michael's. I also purchased a few $.59 sheets of scrapbooking paper that I thought liked nice together. You'll need one for the background (I used a woodgrain paper) and then a different piece of paper for each hand you plan on doing. I chose a white paper with texture and a colorful paper with fish. You can do this with any size frame and any amount of hands. You can also be as wild or traditional as you'd like with the paper.


1. Take the piece of background paper and cut it to fit the frame. Insert this behind the matt. Now you'll need to take one of the kid's hands and trace it directly on the decorative paper. Be sure to spread their fingers out a little bit if you can--this makes for a superior looking cut-out. Take another sheet of paper and trace any additional hands as well.

2. Carefully cut out the outlined hands.

3. Arrange the hands together in a way that you like. I didn't glue the hands to the background but you can. I stuffed the cut outs into the bottom of the frame. If you want a more untamed look, you can let some of the fingers actually go over the matt in the frame.

4. Put the art into the frame and carefully close it. If you glued your hands down, you won't have to be as careful about the hands falling out of place but make sure that your glue has totally dried.

5. Ta da! You're done. Hang up your picture or give it as a gift!