Before I was a teacher, I will admit that I didn’t know much about Grandparents Day but after my first year, I saw how much fun it was to celebrate the special relatives in the lives of my students. At every school I taught at we would have a special Grandparents Day lunch and make a craft for the students to gift to the special person who came to eat with them. As a mom, I now love creating cute gifts for the grandparents in our lives and this year I braved paint with the baby to make a Grandparents Day Handprint Owl Gift!
Grandparents Day Handprint Owl Gift
Grandparents Day is on September 7th this year. W doesn’t start preschool until a few days later, so we had some time to sit down and make some special gifts for the grandparents in our lives. I am a huge fan of hand print crafts because I love the way they capture the child’s size in that moment.
So this year we went with Grambo’s currently love for owls and made a crafty little owl with a touch of handprint love!
What you need:
- 8×10 canvas
- 2 sheets of scrapbook paper (one for the body of the owl and one for the legs and beak)
- 1 sheet of white paper (for the eyes, I used ivory cardstock)
- Coordinating color of acrylic paint
- Glue
- Scissors
- Permanent marker
You can freehand the shapes for the owl body, legs, beak, and eyes. Or if you’re using an 8×10 canvas, you can download my template to trace your shapes and they will fit! Download the Owl Always Love You Grandparents Day Handprint Gift template to get started!
What you do:
- Trace and cut your owl body parts on your chosen scrapbook paper. I recommend you trace on the back so your pencil marks don’t show on your finished product.
- Lay pieces on to owl to double check that sizing works well. Trim anything that is necessary.
- Draw pupils on owl eyes with crayon.
- Glue all pieces onto canvas.
- Break out the paint and your child’s hand.
- Use handprint with thumb up to create a wing on each side of the owl.
- Add “Owl Always Love You” text with permanent marker.
I will admit that breaking out the paint is always the part that gets me a bit scared. When I do hand print crafts I often use a washable stamp pad but for the canvas, I’ve found that the paint works better.
If you have someone who can help you and be a second pair of hands to wash little painted hands, it works out pretty well. I recommend that you only use a thin layer of paint because you can use a brush to fill in the hand print a bit afterwards.
I’m so thankful that my kids have many of their grandparents living nearby. Family is so important and always a great reason to celebrate no matter what day!
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