Simple Homemade Gift for Cherishing Little Hands

By on July 5, 2011 in frugal & simple

Post by Contributing Writer, Michele Augur.
Those little hands grow so quickly!

Capturing children’s hand prints is always a fun way to cherish precious childhood moments, and share them as gifts with others, too.

For Father’s Day, I embroidered my children’s hand prints, and framed them as a gift for Grandpa.

It didn’t involve any special embroidery techniques; just a straight backstitch. No sewing machine was needed; I did most of the hand stitching in the car on a short road trip!

My small project (with just 2 hand prints) only took a couple hours, and was much less messy than a previous paint project.

I cut a small scrap of unbleached muslin fabric to fit the frame, and each child chose what color thread he/she wanted their hand print to be.

Then, using a pencil (scraped from the bottom of my daughter’s book bag), I traced each child’s hand onto the muslin fabric.

[Ideally, you may want to iron the fabric first, but I was in the car. Guess the wrinkles give it more of that child-made look?]

Then, I just embroidered onto the pencil tracings. I also embroidered the year onto it, since the years fly by so quickly! It’s ok if you’re not an “experienced,” proficient sewer. Those lines can be a bit wiggly; just like those children’s hands!

I added the completed project to a $1 frame, and packaged up the gift. Total cost: Less than $2!

About Michele

Michele and her husband Calvin live a simple & sustainable life in rural Washington with their two- going on three- (busy!) little ones at Hampton Creek Inn. She takes joy in the daily ministry of delving into creativity, traditional homemaking & hospitality, homeschooling in everyday moments, and smooching her husband in the woods. Michele loves encouraging women and equipping them for frugal, natural living through her blog, Frugal Granola.
View all posts by Michele →

14 Responses to Simple Homemade Gift for Cherishing Little Hands

  1. Alida Van Polanen July 23, 2011 at 7:15 am #

    As a fairly new grandparent, I can sure appreciate this project.

    How about making grandma an apron with the hands appliqued on it?

    Wishful thinking on my part!

    :)

  2. Amy July 6, 2011 at 5:54 am #

    Such a great idea! Thanks for sharing =)

  3. Adrienne @ Whole New Mom July 6, 2011 at 4:29 am #

    I LOVE this. Grandpa has everything he needs so we give him time, cards and photos and photo gifts. This will be next!

    Your link to the painting project isn’t working, however, and I would love to see it!

    - Adrienne

    • Michele @ Frugal Granola July 6, 2011 at 3:37 pm #

      Sorry, my blog had some technical difficulties this morning. Everything should be fixed now! :)

      Blessings,
      Michele

  4. MommySetFree (Pamela) July 5, 2011 at 6:01 pm #

    This is a really sweet idea! You have inspired me to spring board off of this idea for our six children…Oh this will be fun. I think I am going to see if I can find a Scripture on hands serving. Thanks for the kick start!

    • Michele @ Frugal Granola July 5, 2011 at 9:10 pm #

      What a wonderful idea to add a scripture verse! :) Have fun!

      Blessings,
      Michele

  5. Sallie Kate July 5, 2011 at 5:10 pm #

    Sweet little project :)

  6. Jes July 5, 2011 at 2:41 pm #

    I did this last fall! I was looking for a quick craft idea that I could do instead of making an imprint of the kids hands in clay. I used an 8×10 frame for 3 kids. Stitched with black thread on unbleached muslin. I was wondering how I’d fit the 4th hand (new baby) this year when I make one. I love the idea of overlaping the hands using different color threads! I never even thought of that!!!

  7. Kristina July 5, 2011 at 12:58 pm #

    This is such a cute idea! I never thought of doig handprints! I am going to be making ths for my mom for her birthday!

  8. charlie July 5, 2011 at 9:32 am #

    I love this idea!

  9. Kelly Perry July 5, 2011 at 8:29 am #

    great idea!

  10. Jenni July 5, 2011 at 6:48 am #

    I love this idea! I will have to do this with my little one. :)

  11. Shelley July 5, 2011 at 6:29 am #

    What an awesome idea! This is going to be a great Christmas present for the Grands!!! Thanks for sharing!

  12. Joy Y. July 5, 2011 at 6:04 am #

    I will be making these today. I needed a simple project I could work on, here in the midst of 5 kids, one being a babe. Small snippets of craft time are the order of the day. What a precious gift this will be for papa! Thank you!

    Blessings,

    ~Joy~