Footprint Christmas Ornament

Christmas gifts for our family this year will be footprint ornaments. I came across this idea on Pinterest from this mommy blogger.

 

I drew inspiration from her ornament and combined it with my love of wood working. You don’t have to have a lot of tools for this project, just a baby and a lot of patience.

I used scrap wood for this project and just guestimated the size of the wood I would need based on my son’s foot size. I drilled a hole through the top of the wood and stained them in Special Walnut by Minwax.

 

 

I painted my son’s foot with acrylic paint and stamped it onto one side.

 

After it dried I turned it over and wrote a message using a paint pen.

 

 

 A piece of ribbon is all I needed to finish and decorate the tree!

Right next to a picture of his daddy on his first Christmas!

Tips for this project:

1.       Paint your infant’s foot while he or she is sleeping or eating. I first attempted this project while my 3 week old son was alert and awake and he was not happy with me. A lot of wiggling and moving caused blurry footprints. While he eats his body goes limp which made it was easier for me to use his foot to stamp the wood.

 

2. Put your baby in an outfit with the feet exposed. I used a sleeper and pulled it up a little so the rest of his body was warm.

 

3.  Don’t overdo it on the paint. The more paint I used, the sloppier the footprint.

4.       Have some wet wipes handy and get in between the toes during clean up.

Here's the Christmas elf himself!

 

Thank you to ITZE Photography for the beautiful photos.