Burlap Hand Print Art

All of us have seem various hand print art.

There's the hand print plaster mold:

There's the finger paint, hand print on pre-school paper, framed:

Then there's the hand print made into a shape....

I have to say, although sweet, I've never been moved to hang any of the above on my walls. Does that make me "Mommy Dearest"...maybe? And with 4 kids, that's a lot of hand print art to put up (with).  But aside from sticking them on the fridge and then in a kids' scrapbook, I just wasn't feeling it...until I saw this in the Wisteria catalogue a couple of years ago.

Personalized Handprint art set, $49,  from Wisteria (currently sold out)

Then I started thinking..."I like the burlap background". "I like that I can control what color I want to use". And I started looking for hard backed canvas boards for this project. And then, with great shock, I became pregnant with my fourth child. I decided that because of the HUGE age difference between my oldest (now 14) and my youngest (now 2) that I would really want to sort of freeze this moment in time...while we are all still together. To preserve their sizes just at this very moment. And that's when I understood why people hang hand print art on their walls....and now I have done so as well, just in my own style.

Here's my copy-cat DIY "Wisteria" Handprint Project:

I used canvas hard boards, purchased at Hobby Lobby, on sale, for under $4 a piece.  I traced the boards on burlap, cut the burlap and Modge Podged the bulap to the canvas. I liked seeing the edges of the exposed wood and canvas. (You could also staple and wrap the burlap around the canvas, but you run the risk of not having a crisp edge). We then had a family night where I put out a wide array of craft paint bottles and the kids got to choose what color they wanted to use. We painted each others hands and they got to decide where to place their hand.  They then signed the back with their name, age and grade. It was a fun night and a special project to do together.

Do you have hand, foot or finger print art hanging in your home? I'd love to hear about it!
XXXOOO.