These Hands Will Hold My Heart Forever- Keepsake Handprint Canvas Craft

I did a Valentine's post last month featuring an absolutely gorgeous Keepsake Handprint Canvas that Clean & Scentsible made using her Silhouette (please see her post for a step-by-step tutorial and of course to see how beautiful hers is!). My friend and I decided to make one with our kids to display in our homes since we loved her canvas so much.

My friend picked up small canvases from Michael's using a 40% (or 50%) off coupon. We started by making handprints with our kids using red ink. I made one handprint with my 3 year old and one with my then 7 week old (so cute!). She made a handprint with both of her son's hands (bottom photo). If you are making prints with a small baby, it is best to do it right after they have eaten since their hand is more relaxed and will more likely stay open while you press it down. If it is too hard to get a print, you could instead trace around the hand onto cute scrapbook paper and cut it out.

Next, we painted the edges and sides of the canvas with 2 coats of black paint. We used masking tape to make a straight edge, but the paint still bled a little. To hide the messy look, we glued (Mod Podge) strips of black ribbon where the black paint and white canvas met (hard to see in the photo, but it made it made a nice border/frame). The words are made with letter stamps and black paint. You can usually find these in a scrapbook store/section. The tiny words "hands" and "heart" (top photo) are made with scrapbook letter stickers. The heart was cut from scrapbook paper. Along the bottom, we glued a strip of ribbon. After all the pieces were glued down, we went over the tops of everything with Mod Podge to seal/protect it (optional).

Here is the one my friend made with her son:

I regularly link up to these parties!