Handprint Trees

Lately the twins have been wild, climbing the walls wild, so I thought it might be good to funnel some of that energy into an artistic expression.  Today we made handprint trees, and used their little fingerprints as leaves.  It actually turned out pretty well and now we have some cute fall trees hanging on our art wall.  Here's what we did...

Supplies:

• Paint (washable & non-toxic)
• Paint brush
• Paper
• Small containers (or paint lids) for dipping

Method:
 
First, I painted brown paint onto a cute chubby hand and stamped it a few times to make the branches of the tree.  I had to repaint each hand twice to get enough limbs.  Then, I added in a tree trunk.  

After that, I gave each boy a few small dishes of paint, and showed them how to dip their fingers in and stamp the leaves.  We used yellow, orange, red, magenta, and even a little purple.  The boys stamped leaves on the trees, some falling down, and some on the ground.  Thing 1 was much more interested in eating the paint than stamping, but I helped him a bit.  Thing 2 on the other hand really got into the stamping.  He even repeated, "stamp, stamp, stamp" each time.    

 From start to finish the project took less than 15 minutes, so it was perfect for the 20 month old twins.  Honestly, Sissy was even a little jealous of their art when she got home from school!  Maybe we will do it again with her this weekend.

I'd love to hear from you if you try it with your own little hands!

Happy stamping!