Making pictures with thumb and finger prints is easy, even for the reluctant artist. And other than needing to wash hands afterwards, it’s not all that messy! All you need is a washable stamp pad or two and some markers to add detail. A single thumb print can be turned into a bunny, a bear, a dog, a shy mouse, or even a spider. If you start building a design with multiple finger prints you can make flowers, ants, even trains. A row of prints could be a caterpillar, a stack of fingerprints could be a snowman. Your childs imagination is the only limit.
Have your child press his or her thumb on the stamp pad, then press it on the paper. Use the markers to add eyes, ears, a nose, whiskers or legs. You can add some grass and flowers for the animals to romp through if they want.
Thumb print pictures make great gifts for grandparents and other important people. You can also make thumb print pictures on gift tags, or party invitations. A line of print pictures across the top of a paper makes great stationery for moms or teachers. You can even staple a few pages together for a child to illustrate a simple story. Thumb print pictures would also be a cute thing to include in a scrapbook page.
If you want more direction and cool ideas check out Ed Emberley’s Complete Funprint Drawing Book or Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book. I guarantee you and your children will be inspired.
Like I said, even children who don’t like to draw love to do thumb and finger print drawing. I think because it is easy and fast and they get cute results with little effort. As a parent, I treasure these tiny works of art. It’s a reminder of their tiny little fingers, and how quickly they are growing.
Scrapbooking with Kids has some more great ideas for perserving those precious hand and feetprints.
So break out the stamp pads and have fun.