apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

You can do a stepping stone for the garden. Buy a little kit at the local craft store. You can put her handprints in and also some memorable items like stones or small toys that she has.

Maybe try a paint-yer-own-pottery place?

I have this - http://gifts.redenvelope.com/baby/deluxebabykeepsakekit-30000224. My son was in the nicu for 2 months, but once he was stable my friend and I took the clay in and had his first craft project, getting those tiny little prints. It's not all that original, but it's the nicest presentation of that sort of thing that I've seen.

We actually did the paint a canvas last Christmas and it turned out very well. I got four 4x6" canvases from Michael's for around $2, three tubes of paint, gave them each 2-3 coats, let dry, and then did feet. I ended up giving this to my husband as his gift from our daughter. My daycare provider recently made me a stationery "set" of my daughter's handprints on cards - people are gaga for them when they get them in the mail. You could also do little thumbprints together to make heart shapes.

I can't remember where I first saw this, but you could trace your child's hand on fabric (with pencil or water-soluble fabric pen) and then embroider over the lines.
Then, do it again once every year or two in a different color on top of the original hand.

As his first official Father's Day present I had my husband paint his hand and do a hand print. Then in a different color, I painted my son's hand and put it right along side Daddy's. I wrote "Happy 1st Father's Day" along the top with the date and then "labeled" each hand Daddy's and Oliver's (my son). He treasures that gift and it's a reminder of how little our son's hand was in comparison to Daddy's. Hope this is helpful!

I just recently ordered a stitched handprint from a new Etsy shop called Something Sewn. It turned out so cute!
Here's the link to her shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7328928
and here's a link to the handprint that she made for my daughter in fabric I sent that matches her bedding (you have to scroll down a little):
http://vermillionrules.blogspot.com/2009/09/favorites-on-friday.html

Last Christmas, we made paint imprints of our daughter's hands and feet onto muslin, an exciting project by itself. My mother sewed them into potholders, with her name and the date. Both sweet and useful!

I made a pillow cover (instructions are easy - just google it) out of linen. Then I traced my son's hand on paper, traced that on the pillow, and sewed around it. I put his name and the date. It's really cute and was a great present for his grandmother.

I've also seen them hung in embroidery hoops. They're cute. Also, I've seen butt prints w/ hand prints on canvas. It sounds tacky, but it was cute. It was one of the tours on here. Maybe a silhouette?

You could use the handprint as a stamp of sorts and do repeats to make a bigger art piece (I'm thinking poster). Like white hand prints striped with red hand prints and a blue hand prints box to make an american flag poster? If you like american flags as decorative motifs. Or a peace sign. I'm coming up with cheesy examples here but I think you get the idea.

You could go to a craft supply store and get clay (real clay, not Fimo or whatever it is) to roll out and do imprints in. Any ceramic studio in your area will probably be willing to fire stuff for you for a small fee. A huge block of clay is pretty cheap and a clear glaze and a color to accent the prints with shouldn't cost you that much.

i wasn't sure if you wanted a diy one or a place that would do it for you. i've tried the diy kits at home and i've just been unsuccessful. so far what i like to do is get one of those hand stamps at the craft store. they come in various colors and i lay my son's hand on it and place it on a piece of paper. we have even made presents for his grandparents of just his hand print that way and they love it. another place that i have used is a website called by baby. www.bybaby.com i love my keepsake that i used with them. it is totally worth the cost. check it out! oh and good luck.

My son's preschool gave us their handprints painted onto hot pad holders. They are already "hand shaped" and I still use mine 5 years later!

Instead of the flat plaster impressions (or variations thereof), you could do a 3D mold of the hands instead. (Like these: http://www.castingkeepsakes.com/)

Any family that stays over at our house gets to make their handprint on an individual canvas and all the canvases hang in the hallway. We also take photos when we make the prints and have a photo album filled with the photos of our guests with their art projects. http://www.flickr.com/photos/11155129@N02/3921800354/

I found that footprints were lots easier to do that handprints for a little baby....just a thought.

We did a mug! My hubby broke his fav coffee mug and was somewhat bummed about it so I took my son to the paint your own pottery place and we put his lil handprint on a coffee mug for my husband..He LOVES it.

You could do http://www.piggiesandpaws.com/.
I've done the handprint at a paint-your-own- pottery studio, and that turned out really cute.

if you wanted to do the clay route. there is silver clay where the clay after fired will turn to silver. polish it up and there you have it. it would make a beautiful christmas ornament or wall hanging. find out if you local school, college, or even pottery place will fire it for you. they might charge but it would be beautiful. you could also do thumb prints of you and your husband, dog paw, and so on! http://www.metalclaysupplystore.com/catalogs/categories.asp?catid=5766

I just let my baby paint a big messy watercolor on a piece of paper when she was 1, and then I stamped her hand onto the painting so it left a pale white mark. Now it is framed.

Piggys and paws is amazing! They ave so many different artwork options