It's Always Autumn

creative tutorials for everyday life

  • Holidays
  • Holidays
    • back to school
    • birthdays
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Halloween
    • July 4th
    • Mother’s Day/Father’s Day
    • teacher appreciation
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s
  • Crafts
  • Crafts
    • crafts + DIY
    • handmade gifts
    • photo crafts
    • kid crafts + activities
  • Recipes
  • Recipes
    • bread
    • dessert
    • main dish
    • side dish
  • Sewing
  • Sewing
    • free sewing patterns
    • sewing for women
    • sewing for kids
    • how to sew
    • gifts
  • Photography
  • Photography
    • beginning photography tips
    • posing tips
    • photo editing tips
  • Tips
  • Tips
    • parenting tips
    • travel tips
    • books I love
  • FAQ

crafts handmade gifts holidays Mother's Day/Father's Day
May 6, 2019

Make an adorable family handprint tree {great gift idea}

In today’s post: Looking for an easy, inexpensive keepsake gift? Download my free printable and make your own family handprint tree.

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are both coming up. I’ve always thought the best gifts for these holidays are ones that my kids make themselves, as opposed to gifts my husband and I buy for each other. Not that I don’t appreciate those too – I mean, I’ll take all the gifts! But the ones I love most are the notes from my kids, or the video my husband helped the kids make years ago where they say why they love me (“I weally, weally, weally love my mom!”). Today I’m sharing a free printable that makes it easy to include the kids in a gift for Mom or Dad, or Grandma and Grandpa: a family handprint tree.

Find 20 Father’s Day cards +gifts that kids can make here.

Cute family handprint tree! Click through for the free printable tree, then personalize with your family's handprints.

Family Handprint Tree

A family handprint tree is an easy, inexpensive keepsake gift that would be perfect for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Handprint gifts are so much fun to look back on years later! You can label each handprint with the child’s name to make it easy to remember which is which.

Find lots of handprint + footprint gift ideas here

Cute family handprint tree! Click through for the free printable tree, then personalize with your family's handprints.

Download the Handprint Tree printable

I created the free tree printable in 3 different sizes for you to use.

Family handprint tree printable art.

If your kids are a little older (grade school and up), you will likely want to print the tree out as at 11×14 so you will have plenty of room. This size is also a good idea if you’d like to include the parent’s handprints, or if you have lots of handprints to include. The handprint tree in my example photos is printed as an 11×14, and it has my handprint on it as well as those of my 8 and 11 year olds.

Download the 11×14 tree by clicking here

If your kids are little, you can probably get away with printing the handprint tree as an 8×10. You can either download it as an 8×10 file that can order from a photo processor, OR as an 8.5×11 pdf that you can print on your home printer and then cut down to fit an 8×10 frame. If you print at home, I’d recommend using cardstock.

Download the 8×10 tree by clicking here

Download the 8.5×11 tree by clicking here

PLEASE NOTE: Order your tree printed on lustre or matte photo paper, NOT GLOSSY. Glossy paper will be too slippery to make good handprints.

How to make a Handprint Family Tree

Making the handprint family tree is easy, but I do recommend printing two or three copies of the tree base so you can practice once or twice to figure out your preferred handprint placement. Or, if you don’t want to print multiple copies, you can test out the handprints on a plain piece of paper instead.

I used acrylic paint for this project because it’s cheap (50 cents each at Walmart) and comes in lots of colors. You can do all your handprints in one color if you’d like, but I think the tree looks pretty with a variety of colors. Also, grab a pack of small foam paint brushes, 1 for each color that you plan to use.

You can layer your handprints however you’d like; I put the largest handprints down first and the smallest ones on top.

I found it was easiest to do this at the kitchen counter so we were near a sink to wash the kids’ hands once they were done making prints.

To make a handprint, place about a quarter size dollop of paint on your child’s hand. Use a foam paintbrush to spread the paint evenly across the palm and fingers.

How to make a family handprint tree.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have printed the tree out as a photo print, you will need pretty solid paint coverage on the hand to get a good handprint. You don’t need paint dripping anywhere, but it does need to be covered and quite wet, so apply more paint if needed. Don’t wait too long after you’ve painted the hand before placing it down to make a print. If you printed the tree on paper or cardstock, you will not need quite as much paint.

Once the hand is covered in paint, place it down on your tree. Press the hand down firmly, being careful not to slide it around.

How to make a handprint family tree. Free printable.

Then lift the hand to show the print. If it didn’t transfer well and looks very light, coat the hand in paint a second time and place it down in the same place to get a better print.

As soon as the handprint is made, wash the remaining paint off. As long as you wash it off quickly it will come off easily with water and soap. But if you let it dry it will be hard to get all the paint off!

I waited about five minutes in between each handprint to make sure they didn’t smear. You can use a hairdryer on low to help speed the drying process in between each handprint.

Cute family handprint tree! Click through for the free printable tree, then personalize with your family's handprints.

Once the handprints are all dry, you could use a Sharpie to label them with names and the date. Then place the handprint tree in a frame and your gift is ready to go!

More Mother’s Day + Father’s Day gift ideas:

Print + Color Mother’s Day card

Print + Color Father’s Day card

20 great DIY gifts for guys

Funny printable Father’s Day cards

Cute family handprint tree! Click through for the free printable tree, then personalize with your family's handprints.

 

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Print

Home » holidays » Make an adorable family handprint tree {great gift idea}


2 Comments

free email series

NO FAIL CRAFTS + RECIPES

Get my favorite EASY craft and recipe ideas straight to your inbox!

« How to make an Explosion Box {cheap, unique DIY gift idea!}
S’mores Cookies {easy recipe using a cake mix} »

Comments

  1. Jeanne Hoerr says

    May 7, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    I just wanted to give you a shout out for all of your patterns. I just finished the Everyday Dress today and just love it! I have used your t-shirt pattern a couple of times and love the fit. It is so wonderful when you have clothes that actually fit!!

    Thanks again and keep those ideas coming 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The BIG list of handprint art, gifts + keepsakes (footprints too!) - Canadian Blog says:
    May 8, 2020 at 9:06 am

    […] 4. This cute art piece uses handprints as leaves on a tree. From It’s Always Autumn: […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Hey, glad you’re here!

I'm Autumn, a mom of five who loves ice cream, Masterpiece Theatre, and clothes that hide the fact that I eat so much ice cream. When I was 18 I got a job at a craft store and told everyone (regularly) how much I hated crafts. Well, things change! Read More…

Find me here

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

free email series

NO FAIL CRAFTS + RECIPES

Get my favorite craft + recipe ideas straight to your inbox!

Popular Posts

101 fun activities that kids can do at home list on a colorful striped background

101 Fun + Easy Activities kids can do AT HOME

50 easy crafts and activities kids can do indoors! Perfect for cold or rainy days.

50 best indoor activities for kids: easy crafts + games

Gorgeous art projects for kids! Easy art that turns out amazing.

20 easy art projects for kids that turn out AMAZING!

How to make GORGEOUS paper flowers

How to make mini donuts! {baked cake mix donuts recipe}

Blog policy

All posts and pictures are copyrighted by Autumn Baldwin and blog content may not be reposted elsewhere. However, linking back to my content is just fine. You may use one photo as long as you link directly back to the specific post. Thank you!

Please view our Privacy Policy here.

Also, please note that this blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2021 · Divine theme by Restored 316192.168.1.1 router login

Copyright © 2021 · Divine Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

free email series

NO-FAIL CRAFTS + RECIPES

Get my favorite EASY craft + recipe ideas straight to your inbox!

x