A sweet, homemade gift for mothers and teachers! Make this one with your child from air dry clay.
Children's handprints are such a lovely way to capture the littleness of childhood. As a mom, I save all of the construction paper tracing and funny animal crafts that come home using my children's hands. I just love them!
When my friend Jeran, posted these fabulous photo holders made from air dry clay, I immediately thought of my children's handprints! I wanted to create with these small shapes in such an easy medium. And then the usability of a small dish evolved as we were playing with the flexibility of air dry clay.
A sweet, homemade gift for mothers and teachers! Make this one with your child from air dry clay.
I purchased Crayola's tub of clay to give it a roll. First we took about a baseball-sized ball of clay. It's softer than potter's clay and easy to manipulate. Using a rolling pin, we flattened the clay and traced out L's hand with a pencil on the clay.
He removed his hand, and I carefully pulled away the excess clay. If you're trying this, make sure that you have clay rolled out to about 1/4 inch in thickness. Too flat makes the hand plate too flimsy and too think makes the fingers hard to move. Using a spatula, I lifted the palm and fingers to allow them to dry on an armature for shaping.
I'm all for working what you have so I grabbed some unused measuring spoons to prop the clay into the bowl-like shape I wanted. Follow the instructions on the container to make sure that it's dried completely before you move it. You'll notice that it turns more bright white as it dries.
My children loved seeing their hands as art! And they thoroughly enjoyed making an object they knew their teachers and grandmothers would use on their desks or dressers.
A sweet, homemade gift for mothers and teachers! Make this one with your child from air dry clay.
Have you worked with air dry clay? You should give it a whirl if you haven't yet!