How to - Hnadprint Family Tree

For my birthday this year, I decided I wanted to capture my family’s hand prints before my kids are too grown up (a little late, but better late than never right? – Hey, they didn’t have Pinterest when my son was little ^__<) so they took me to a local craft shop where you can paint pottery and they will fire it for you.  The local shop in town is called Crackpots, but I have seen many variations of this type of thing.  It’s a lot of fun, but pricy so we don’t get to go very often.  Still, for this gift, I got to pick a large plate and decided I wanted to make a family tree.

I got the idea from Pinterest.  How cute is this?

I wanted to share with you how I made it, in case you were inspired.  I hope you like it!

First I started with a light pencil outline for the whimsical tree shape I wanted.  Then I filled this in with dark brown paint (feel free to choose whatever color scheme best fits you).  I tried to make sure I couldn’t see any paint brush streaks, but I missed a few.

Next, I started with my husband’s hand as it is the largest.  After discussing where I wanted his hand to end up, I painted his entire palm liberally with a shade of green.  I pressed his palm to the plate, making doubly sure I had pressed each part firmly to the ceramic before lifting it straight up.

Then it was time for my own hand.  I repeated the same process with my own hand.

Then with my son’s.

And finally with my daughter’s.  I used a different shade of green for each hand print.

Once the tree was finished, I added our family name across the bottom of the ceramic. To do this I simply wrote our name lightly in pencil then used a bottle with a pointed cap to trace the letters with paint.

After finishing the name I decided it needed something more so I added thumbprint bees.  To do this I repeated the same process for the hands except I only painted the thumb.  I chose to do these all with the same shade of yellow.  Once I had each of the thumbprints down and nearly dry I added the wings (a rounded M shape on top), the stinger (a V shape on the back), a dot for the eye, and a few lines across the bee for stripes.  These little details made all the difference.

Finally, after waiting for the front to dry, I flipped the plate to the back and added our names and the date. Last, I added a small dragonfly (significant to me for other reasons) just because it looked like it needed something.

I couldn’t wait to pick up my plate and am so happy with how it turned out.  The only problem now is finding a plate hook large enough.  ^__^  

I hope you enjoyed the project as much as I did.  May you be inspired and Happy Crafting!