Baby footprints keepsake painting

There aren’t many things cuter than baby feet. I wanted to capture some tiny footprints before they get too big.

I took a 6×6 inch wooden panel I had in my stash and painted it a soft yellow with some acrylic craft paint.

This girl has a hard time sitting still, so I figured the easiest way to garner cooperation from Elise was to employ a five-point harness.

I covered the bottom of her stroller with a plastic bag to protect it from paint.

Then I spread a thin layer of paint on a piece of cardboard, in effect creating a stamp pad, and used Elise’s foot as the stamp.

I made sure the entire bottom of her foot was covered. I had to touch up a little with a foam brush, but through experimenting, I found this method worked much better than trying to paint her entire foot with the brush. The paint started drying almost immediately, so I had to work fast.

I stamped her feet onto the panel one at a time and then cleaned each foot with a couple of baby wipes. I did have a couple of mishaps where her footprint just wasn’t right, but I quickly wiped the paint off the panel with a wipe and it came off cleanly.

After everything was dry, I took an art marker and put her name on the top. She’s a few weeks away from being a year old, but I’m pretty certain her feet won’t grow substantially between now and then, so I labeled it “Age 1.”

Overall, this project was a lot less messy than I thought it would be and was surprised at Elise’s cooperation on her first craft project.

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