Baby Handprint Crafts

Make a Baby Footprint Totebag

A baby footprint totebag is a terrific gift for grandparents, aunts and uncles or anyone who knows your newborn. Give yourself about 90 minutes to make one or more totebags. Here's what you'll need:

- A "Blank" or plain white totebag. These are available at craft stores or online at Joann.com, which has a nice multi-pocket canvas totebag. Try to get a totebag that doesn't cost too much, because its easy to make mistakes with a wet baby's hand. Also, consider getting more than one: making two or three totebags takes only a minute or so once you're underway.
- Paint. You'll need paint that will wash off, is child safe, and will stick to fabric (even survive washing). Crayola Portfolio Series Acrylic Paint, sold at MisterArt.com for $7.25, fits the bill.
- A brush or sponge to apply the paint to your baby's hands and feet
- A dish for the paint
- Optional: a dish of water to dilute the paint to make it flow better. The Crayola paint mentioned above can be diluted eight to one.


I highly recommend "practicing" making footprints and handprints before you imprint the totebags. Try painting with the paint on a few blank sheets of paper to get a sense of how thick or thin you want the paint to be. Then try painting your baby's foot or hand and doing a few test impressions on a piece of paper. Once you've got a system down, get the bag in a convenient place for stamping, paint your baby's foot or hand, and stamp away.

Be sure to let the paint dry thoroughly before you test its sureness. Also, try to make the footprints on places on the bag where the fabric doesn't bend or stretch too much. Paint isn't as flexible as fabric.





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