Thankful Trees

Found this great idea on Pinterest. One look and I was sold.
Handprint trees.
In fall colors.

I wasn’t sure if this baby’s would turn out but with a lot of coaxing and patience, this is what I was able to get. Sweet little hands.

And a print of his chubby little baby arm.

Once dried, I added their names and the year.

Side by side you can see the difference of size in their palms. 
Each one showing their personality just a bit with the swirl of the colors.
And forever more, a little bit of a cherished season.

I am so thankful for the little hands that made these trees. Some day, those hands will be bigger than mine, with no time for painting projects. This year though, little hands loved getting paint everywhere. Bogie gave a gut laugh each and every time the paint brush stroked his palm, it was so delightful. The baby kept squeezing his hand open shut, open shut, not quite sure of the paint. Monkey planned where each and every print went, double checking the progress with each added color.

If you’d like to make your own: I used an 11X14 canvas for each one. We started with dark brown for the tree limb and let it dry. I pretend painted their hand, showed them how to press their palm firmly and evenly down onto the canvas BEFORE any paint went on. Practice practice. Then we painted green, went to yellow, and finally added the orange. Coating the hand color by color. For some layers we used two colors on the hand. Once dried I painted on each boys name through the trunk and a small 2011 below it.

~mrs. dunbar