If you have read any of my craft blog posts, you are very well aware that I am obsessed with making hand print crafts. I just love making artwork using B's tiny little hands.
My husbands Birthday is right around the corner and I wasn't sure what to get him. As a SAHM I hate spending money to buy him a gift, because in all reality he is technically buying his own gift. Not only that, we don't need anything. I started brainstorming and came up with a great idea.
B and I have been stuck in the house because of Nor'easter after Nor'easter dropping a ridiculous amount of snow on us. I guess that's what we get for living in New England. One thing we did to stay busy while stuck in the house was snow paint. It was during a blizzard with high winds and freezing temps, so we couldn't go outside to play in the snow, so I brought the snow inside to play! Yes, Inside! I put the snow in plastic cups and added food coloring. Handed B some paint brushes and he got to work, painting away, he thought it was the coolest thing ever! It really was fun! Check out the how to on my snow paint blog post here.
He painted a stack of "paintings" on computer paper. I let them dry and set them aside, unsure what I would do with them, but knowing I didn't want to get rid of them because they were his precious masterpieces.
I was looking at the dried stack of artwork from B's snow painting session and it came to me! I was going to make my husband the coolest one of kind piece of artwork ever! I was going to make him a tree out of B's paintings.
We used yellow and green snow paint and I thought those would be the most perfect colors for "tree leaves". I needed a tree trunk and branches so I had B paint some computer paper with his brown and orange watercolor paint and set it to dry.
Once dry, I traced B's hands on all of the green pages of artwork B had created with the snow paint. I fit two to three little hand prints per page and strategically positioned his hands on the page to maximize variation in color. I cut out each hand print one by one. I am sure if you stacked the pages you can do more than one but I liked how each hand print looked a bit different depending on how B had his fingers while I traced them.
Once his watercolor brown artwork was dry I cut out a tree truck and branches.
I found an old frame and mat that we had in our basement and I used that as the canvas. I simply scotch taped the branches and leaves making a tree. I used tape so I could easily reposition the elements until I achieved the look I wanted.
The final results of this one of a kind hand print tree exceed my wildest expectations! It is so beautiful. It is a one of a kind piece of art that we will enjoy for years to come! This would also make a wonderful Father's Day or Mother's Day gift.
