12 Days of Christmas: Day Ten - Hand/Footprint Craft

by Bethany Conkel

*You can find Bethany's 12 Days of Christmas post HERE. 

I have two special crafts that I would love to share with you today. The first one is for families who are currently carrying to term after a fatal diagnosis. The next is for families who have already said goodbye to their sweet babies and still want to create something special.

For families who are currently carrying to term here is a wonderful activity that you can do in the hospital the day your baby is born to make sure you can incorporate your sweet one in all future Christmas seasons. It does not matter what month you are going to deliver, you can still do this activity. Many times craft stores will carry the supplies year round. We made this ornament when my baby was born in September so we would be ready for that Christmas!

Create this ornament using StazOn Ink Pad (click here for product description)

StazOn is designed for slick surfaces like glass, metal, plastic, leather, or paper; it is not intended for fabric.

Supply list:
* Your color choice of StazOn Ink Pad, which can be purchased at Michaels, JoAnn fabrics, or Amazon.
* StazOn Ink Remover, which can be purchased at some Michaels, JoAnn Fabrics, or Amazon.
* Glass, ceramic, metal ornament of your choice. We recommend an ornament that has a flat surface to make it easy to capture hand/footprints. We purchased ours at Michaels.

Directions:
When it is time to capture your baby’s print, press hand or foot firmly on the ink pad until the hand or foot is evenly and thoroughly covered with ink. Before ink has time to dry, quickly make print by pressing hand or foot firmly onto your ornament (or other item). Make sure to press each finger or toe individually to be sure the ink transfers thoroughly and completely. Next, gently lift hand/foot away from the ornament to make sure it does not smear. Your ornament should dry within minutes. Re-ink between each print if you are making multiple ornaments. When you are finished making all your ornaments, use the StazOn ink remover to clean hand or foot. Using just soap and water will not work due to the type of ink. The ink remover will be needed to fully clean the ink off your baby’s skin. Using disposable chucks or baby wipes can help this process.

Enjoy your child’s treasured print!

This next craft is for those who have already said good-bye to their baby.

Supply List:
* Candle
* Tissue paper
* Wax paper
* Tape
* Hair dryer or heat gun
* Image you would like to use. We suggest using a scanned copy of your baby’s hand or foot prints, or an ultrasound, or favorite picture.
* Printer

Directions:
Find a copy of your baby’s footprints (or your preferred image). Scan the image. If you would like and are able, you can clean them up in a photo editing program like photo shop, but this is not necessary.
Cut a piece of Tissue Paper a little smaller than a regular piece of printer paper.

Tape the tissue paper to the printer paper. If your tissue paper has a shiny side and a dull side, be sure to tape it so you are printing on the dull side.

Put your prepared paper in your printer so that it will print on the tissue paper and print your image.

Carefully cut out your image. You will want to cut very close to your image so you do not have much border left.

Place the tissue paper image on your candle.

Wrap your candle with wax paper and hold it firmly around the candle. Make sure you do not let the tissue paper slide around on your candle.

Use a hair dryer on high to heat the wax paper. You might want to use an oven mitt if it gets too hot for your hands.

You will see the wax paper start to melt some, keep using the hair dryer until this happens to each section of your image.

Once the wax paper over your entire image looks like it has melted / heated up, carefully remove the wax paper.

You are finished. Enjoy your special candle in memory of your baby!