Last Minute Gifts You Can Make Today – Handprint Christmas Tree

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If you are looking to make a quick gift for family or close friends, and you have kids, you might enjoy this little project we put together yesterday. Make a little Handprint Christmas Tree.

Honestly, we didn’t make it for a gift. We made it for us. But it would make a great gift for someone special. And it really took no time at all.

Seriously, even managing 3 children that did all the “work,” this project took less than 30 minutes, assuming you have all the supplies on hand. And you can get all the supplies on Amazon or at your local store like Walmart or Target.

Here’s what you need:

• 1 Stretched Canvas, 8 by 10″ – (or course, you could use cardstock if you don’t want to make a canvas)
• Washable Tempera Paint  (green, red, yellow, blue and black are what we used)
• Paint Brushes
• paper towels

Here’s what you do

1. Prepare the materials. Ensure you have everything laid out and ready to go.
2. Mark where you want the bottom of your tree to start lightly with pencil. This will give you a guide line. Leave enough room for the trunk at the bottom. You can pencil that in if it helps. I did.
3. Mark where you want the star at the top to go so you know where to stop. You could pencil in the star as well to guide you.
4. Now get an idea of how many hand prints you will want to go across the bottom row. Obviously this depends upon the size of the child’s hand. Since we had 3 kids participating I wanted each to be a part of it so I started with the oldest (biggest hands) on the bottom. At 10 she provided 3 handprints across the bottom, leaving a little white on each side.
5. I then painted her hand with green tempura paint and  sponge brush. I painted liberally. She made 3 handprints across, careful not to rock her hand or press too hard.
6. I repainted her hand after each handprint to ensure even color
7. I then had my 6 year old do the next row. He had 3 handprints across. I repeated the above. However, I placed his hands and helped him press down and not rock back and forth or slide around.Lastly, I had my 2 year provide the last 2 rows. Her smaller hands did 3 across and then 2 acros. She was the trickiest because she wanted to move around and paint. But she thought it was fun!
8. Lastly, I had my 2 year provide the last 2 rows. Her smaller hands did 3 across and then 2 across. She was the trickiest because she wanted to move around and paint. But she thought it was fun!
9. I then washed up the brushes. Their hands we washed immediately after each row. The paint came off VERY easily. Then my son painted the tree trunk. He wanted brown but we didn’t have it so we used yellow and put black lines in it. My oldest daughter painted the star on top.
10. Each child painted some fingerprint bulbs on the tree in different colors and my oldest drew the lines for garland with black.
11. I painted the year in the corner.

Overall, it was a quick and easy project and the kids were excited to see it hanging on the wall.

Do you have any last minute projects or gifts you like to make?