One of the gifts we gave to family for Christmas last year was a calendar – filled with handprint (and footprint) art by the kids. I got the idea from my fabulous friend Kate, remember her from this post, she did something similar for her husband a few years ago.
I started early, like 6-8 months before Christmas, because with a little baby (my son turned one last September), I knew we would only get to do a month or two at a time. I used the project as craft time for my daughter, that is after I got the prints I wanted!
I planned out each month as to what type of scene I wanted to do – something related to that month. I searched for inspiration pictures online and found so many – but one site has the best, Meet the Dubiens, plus she makes some pretty fabulous lunches for her kids too! Definitely worth checking out. Most months were themed to the occasions of that month and usually had both kids involved, but for August and September (my kids’ birthday months) – they got their own month.
It was a fun (and sometimes stressful – really how do you paint each finger of an 8mo. old in a different color and keep him from clenching his hand!) project – and I think it turned out soooo cute!
For the final gift, I scanned the art into our computer and uploaded the pictures to Picaboo and created an awesome calendar. Love me some Picaboo!
Front of the calendar. Picaboo had the cutest corkboard background, and I added little tape graphics to the picture corners. I think it turned out great!
Here are the final month prints in order – January thru December. A fun project for us and a gift that our family can enjoy all year long!