Blogger / 24 February, 2025 / Nanny Anita

Birthday Handprint Tradition

I started doing this birthday handprint tradition with BB when he turned one.  I did it every year for 6 years until I left, and then I made sure that he had 4 more to do until he turns 10.  Now that I am with a new family, I have started the tradition all over again with NC.

Make sure you follow my dealing with children board for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make do your own birthday handprint tradition, you will need:

• Canvas*
• Two different colours of paint
• Paint brush
• Letter stencil

*For the ones I did with BB I used 7in by 7in canvases.  With NC the local art shop didn’t have any square ones, so I got a pack of 5in by 7in instead.  I did joke with my boss saying that they will need to keep me on for the next 9 years so that I can finish all the canvases.

After you have chosen your colour scheme, paint the canvas in one colour.  When I did this with BB, I used complementary colours for all of them.

Once the background is dry, either free hand or with a stencil paint on your little one’s name and their age in the other colour.  I have blurred out BC’s name in this which is why the pictures might look slightly funny.

Then on their birthday paint your little one’s hand with that 2^nd colour and print it down onto the canvas.

This time around I have added NC’s weight and height to the back of the canvas as well.

I won’t lie; it can be very tricky the first couple of years to get a really neat handprint.  It does get better though.  With BB, he always looked forward to doing his on his birthday.  I hope that NC will also love doing this tradition each year as well.

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