Guest post from Amanda of The Frugal Greenish Mama:
One day while my son was holding my hand I started thinking to myself, “My goodness how he has grown. His hand is nearly the size of mine and he is only four!” Somehow it got me thinking of hands and I thought… wouldn’t it be a great idea to make a family tree using the children’s hand print cutouts as leaves.
I started by tracing Austin’s right and left hands on a piece of paper. Next I did the same for my daughter Addie. I wrote their names in the middle of each print. Then I cut out the hand prints and we matched them up to the photos we wanted to use.
Having the hand prints cut out allows you to move it around the photo until you are happy with the results. You can either trace with a pencil the outline of the hand print or cut the hand print out of the photo around your pattern. I cut a total of six hand prints, two of Austin’s and four of Adalynne’s. This could vary depending on the size of your family.
I used two pictures of each of the children, one for their right hand and one for their left hand. Since Austin’s hand prints are larger, I stacked his photos on the bottom. The photos of Adalynne were on the next tier up.
Then for the top two hand print leaves, I used just my daughter’s hand print since they are smaller and I wanted to overlay a family photo. I had two of the same photo made and cut out my husband holding my daughter and then myself holding my son. We then overlapped the image to look like they were one larger image.
I used a white piece of card stock to start with. Then we simply used a piece of brown card stock to cut out a trunk image. I glued the trunk to the white card stock. I started with the bottom of the tree and using acid free glue, glued Austin’s hand prints in place. Then I added the next tier to our family tree by arranging Addie’s hand prints. For the top of the tree, I overlapped the two hand prints and glued them in place.
Add a simple frame and you have yourself a one of a kind family tree full of memories!
Amanda is a wife and mother of two striving to return to her roots to live a simpler life the way God intended it. She loves to cook from scratch, bake, and craft. She blogs at the Frugal Greenish Mama about her love of gardening, her journey to a more self-sufficient lifestyle and saving money while trying to eat organically.
I did a sort of similar thing last November. I traced my 4-yo’s hand prints (right and left hand) and then cut out hand shaped “leaves” out of fall colors (red, orange, yellow, green). Every day I had her tell me one thing she was thankful for and I wrote it in sharpie on a “leaf”. Then I attached them to a big piece of white paper where I had previously attached a brown tree trunk. By the end of the month, we ended up with a “thankful tree” — it not only shows the size of her hand but also her mind set and what she was thankful for. I plan to do it every year. (I used a coupon from an office store to get it laminated for free so I could save it).
That is so cool!
This is a very cute idea. I also love the name Addie. I have a granddaughter that will be 9 next week and her name is Addilyn Nicole aka Addie. 🙂
How funny my daughter’s name is Adalynne Nicole also 🙂
Very cute. I love it. I’m so not crafty enough to pull it off myself, but I’d totally be the type of person that would buy a frame like this.
That is so cute. What a great gift idea for grandma’s especially with Mother’s Day right around the corner. Thanks for this great idea, I was looking for one!
That is the cutest idea! Thank you so much for sharing! It is amazing how quickly they grow!