Child and Parent Hand Print Plaque Craft!

I am so excited! I have been wanting to post this for a long time but I knew that it was going to take a long time to type out so I have been putting it off but I just reached 1,000 followers which makes me so excited so I decided as a gift to my readers I would put this fun post up no matter how long it takes me to type!

So I first saw this craft on my cousin's blog and I thought it was so cute so I saved the link for later use because I knew I wanted to make it someday with Savannah. Then Father's day was coming up and I decided that instead of doing this craft for a mommy and me project I decided to do it as a father's day gift because I knew it would mean a lot to my husband but of course this can be done for any reason even just as a project.

Here is what you will need:

-Flour
-Salt
-Water
-2 or 3 Colors of Paint
-Modge Podge
-Small Paint Brush
-A Bigger Paint Brush
-Pencil Eraser
-Ribbon
-Rolling Pin
-Something that is big and square

First you are going to make the plaque out of salt dough. 

Ingredients for Salt Dough:

-2 Cups Flour
-2 Cups Salt
-1 Cup Water

Directions for Salt Dough:

-Mix all of the ingredients together.
-If it is too sticky than add more flour and if it is too dry than add more water.

Now roll it out.

I rolled it out so that it would be big enough for me to fit my hand in it and still have room to add writing above it.

 Now try to find something that is big and square. I used a salad plate that I had in my cupboard. You are going to use this to cute the dough into a square so it needs to be big enough to fit your hand and writing.

An extra step that you can choose to do or not to do is to take a paint brush and dip it in water and brush the edges of your dough to make it smooth.

Next is the tricky part depending on how old the baby or child is that you are going to do this project with. When I did this I did it with my 5 month old daughter so I had my mom help me because I knew she would just try to squish the dough in her hand as soon as I put it down.









So first you will put your hand down into the dough. Do it hard enough so you can see your hand but not so hard that your child is going to push through the dough. Next help your child, if they are too young to do it on their own, put their hand print in the middle of your hand print. It should end up looking something like this:

Now Punch two holes in the top corners for where you are going to put the ribbon through, or you can put it on a stand if you prefer that, but make sure the holes go all the way through. Mine didn't but I was lucky that it was really thin and I could break through without ruining the whole thing.

Now you are going to bake it at 150 degrees for 3 hours. My cousin and I both bumped the heat up to 200 degrees for the last hour.

Now take it out and let it cool off. After it has cooled off brush modge podge over the top. I am not sure why you brush modge podge over the top here but I did and it didn't hurt it so why not?!?!

Now to my favorite part! First let the modge podge dry and then you can start painting. First paint the whole thing your base color. I chose cream.

Let that dry and then paint both the hands the color you want the big hand to be, I chose Pink!

Let that dry and then color your child's hand the color you want their hand to be, I did blue.

My daughter's hand was the hardest part to paint but I was able to make it look half way decent!

Now you are going to do the writing at the top with your small paint brush. I struggled with what I was going to write on the top for the whole week before I did it but I finally went with Daddy's Girls! You can obviously go with what ever you want like your child's name or Mommy and Me or anything you want!

After you have finished writing than you are going to go dot crazy! Take the pencil eraser and dip it in the paint and put dots all over! I put pink and blue dots all over!

Finally after all the paint has dried brush modge podge over the whole thing to make it glossy and shiny! Then tie the ribbon in it and hang it on a wall!

 

I was highly recommend giving this as a gift because my husband loved it and he said it was his favorite of all his gifts and he got some really good gifts but this one meant a lot to him!

Also head over to my cousin's blog to see how hers turned out!

I Love My Kid's Mommy and Me Plaque