St. Patrick’s Day Keepsake
Handprints Make Little Pots of Gold
Looking for a cute way to make a memory with your littles this St. Patrick’s Day… try these little pots of gold and make a St. Patrick’s Day keepsake!
Little hands grow fast and what better way to make a memory than with these cute handprints! I know St. Patrick’s Day might not seem like a day to make family mementos, but this craft is fairly easy and it will be fun to bring out every year to showcase for St. Patrick’s Day.
Though I made these with my kiddos years ago, I still love them! Their hands are so much bigger now and it is a sweet reminder to those days.
For more handprint ideas, check out this page!
What You’ll Need
- rainbow colored paint colors (with 5 fingers you aren’t getting all the rainbow colors so I chose the basic red, purple, blue, green, and yellow)
- black paint
- metallic gold paint
- paint brushes
- a canvas (or even paper),
- a paint tray or even a plate
- some water and paper towels for cleanup
We used basic acrylic paint like this set here. It is non-toxic and also has the metallic paint so you don’t have to buy it separately!
Directions:
- Set up some water and paper towels before you start, maybe even a sheet or 2 of newspaper, depending on where you work.
- Get your canvas or paper ready.
- Put some paint out on the plate or palate of each color. It is easier to do this now vs one at a time while trying to hold a squirmy kiddo with paint on their hands. Make sure you put enough out so that it doesn’t dry.
- Begin painting the hand. This might be easier with a helper but it can be done alone. My kiddos LOVED this part. It was fun for them. It tickled and could easily be considered sensory play, though, on the other side of that, some kiddos might not like how it feels… so maybe just let them know that the action will have a feeling. If you think your kiddo will have an issue, practice brushing their hands before the paint.
- I painted the gold, the black, and then the fingers. It seemed the paint on the fingers wanted to dry quicker and so I painted those last.
- After the hand is painted, gently push onto the canvas and paper.
- Allow to dry, clean up… and viola!
We did some fingerprint shamrocks to ours and I did all three of my kid’s handprints on one canvas, but you can do it however you’d prefer. Just enjoy the moment!
Ideas…
- Set up another canvas to allow them to “wipe” off the paint from their hand while creating another piece of artwork.
- For older kids, have them place their hands and then with their fingers, individually after picking their hand off the canvas, trace the excess paint in a trail to create a rainbow.
- Do the right and left hands on each side of the canvas and make a rainbow arch in between.
- Make these for you and grandparent… or other family members.
- Include this on a blank card to create a lovely card for the family.
- Mainly, have some fun on a March afternoon!
Make a Memory
It’s funny, I remember the day we did these. My youngest, who is pictured above, was 3. That was almost a decade ago! I remember that my kitchen was a mess and I was feeling a bit down that day, but I remember seeing his smile and realizing that he was just enjoying the time together. He didn’t care about the mess, he was having fun, and it became a sweet memory.
Take these moments, even in the little things.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day… and if you want to see some more St. Patty’s Day ideas… check here!
BEM and Fam 🙂
PS. This post has some affiliate links, read more about those here.
