Sunflowers

Shortly after I started working with Little Man (six years ago!!), we made this sunflower on canvas for his grandparents.  Then his mom loved it so much that she asked us to make one for her too.

 

 The petals are his hands. The seeds are his fingerprints.  The stem is from the side of his foot, and the leaves are his feet.  Cute, right?

So I was driving down the road the other day thinking about crafty type stuff and decorating my family room.  It is almost done.  It just has one wall that needs some items on it, and then a few little things here and there.  I was waiting for family pictures so that I could do a collage of sorts on the wall above the couch.  But I want other things mixed in.  I've already started collecting.  But my mind wandered to the idea of having something that has both Olivia and Logan's feet or handprints.  Kind of like a way to memorialize this moment in time.  I remembered the sunflower and knew that I would do something along those lines.

Here is what I ended up with.  I'm pretty pleased.  It's not perfect, but it pretty much sums up their current stages.

I bought a 2 pack of canvases from Hobby Lobby for $7.99 (and then 40% off).  Of course, I only used one of those canvases.  You might not be able to tell, but I actually did a very light blue background instead of keeping it white.  Only because my walls are a neutral.  I bought the blue paint, a sunflower color and the green.  I already had a brown.

I did Olivia's first.  I made the stem with the side of her foot and then just did one leaf.  I wasn't sure if two would fit.  She has pretty big feet.  Then we did her hands.  She did pretty well.  The fingerprints got a little dicey.  She was letting them slide all over, but we got it under control.  Overall she thought it was the coolest thing that I was painting her hands and feet and even thanked me.

Next up I did Logan's stem and leaves.  That part was easy.  I knew the hand was going to  be difficult.  I was under no illusion that it was actually going to look like a hand.  I would just get him to spread out his fingers as best as I could and then they would kind of just shuffle all over the place while I tried to press them down.  They don't necessarily look like handprints, but I still think it looks neat.  The fingerprint seeds weren't too hard.  I think he enjoyed having his feet painted too.

I didn't take a picture tutorial because I had paint all over.  Have you ever tried getting a handprint from a 3 month old?! :)  But I think you get the idea.  Not bad for less than $8!