Baby's First Christmas Ornament

Dear Reader(s),

Hello again!  Here's one of the first crafty things I did off Pinterest that has now started a tradition.  I think everyone's seen the Christmas ornament with a baby's handprint on it.  If not - you're about to.

The original one that I pinned was a photo of a clear bulb with the hand print in colored glitter.  I knew that wasn't happening.  Way too much of a mess for me.  I'm not totally opposed to messy crafts, most good ones are messy, but at the time I had a 2.5-month-old and four dogs.  Glitter was not my idea of a good time.

As you'll see, I opted for a solid colored bulb and white paint.  We also did a hockey puck as my husband plays recreationally and watches as much as he can (Go Stars!)  I wrote on the back of both with a white paint pen, but neglected to take photos and they are packed away right now.  Perhaps I'll update this after Thanksgiving with photos of the reverse *spoiler alert* they both say "JACK 2012"

So, the ins and outs of this brilliant idea.  First of all, please do yourself, and skip the glitter.  Seriously, I think that saved my sanity.  Second, keep a box of wipes nearby - you're going to need it.  Now that we have the housekeeping out of the way, on to the "how" portion.

You don't need a lot of paint.  Seriously, less is more.  More is just asking for smears.  That includes time that you press the little one's hand on the object in question.  The longer the hand is on the bulb (puck, ball, whatever) the more likely you'll get a messy hand print.

Ideal order of operation:
1 - put paint on a plastic plate (paper gets too soggy)
2 - dip baby's hand into paint
3 - press baby's hand on a throwaway item (paper plate, paper towel, something semi-absorbent)
4 - press baby's hand on what will (hopefully) become a treasured heirloom
5 - wipe hand
6 - repeat as needed

We bought an entire box of fairly large (but not the ridiculously huge) bulbs and about half of them turned out well enough.  Jack wasn't even 3-months at the time, and even though he's small for his age we had trouble getting his hand to fit.  That would be my biggest warning - if you want to do this, do it early.  If your baby's born in January, come December you'll have to get a bigger bulb.

So with all of that said, here's the one glorious picture I took.

Thanks for reading!
~Beth