Thanksgiving Keepsakes & Traditions: Hand & Foot Print Turkeys

 Thanksgiving Keepsakes & Traditions

By now you know I am addicted to have a fondness for hand & foot print crafts.

Why? They make wonderful keepsakes. 

It's an easy way to hold onto a little bit of your child's childhood.

Every year (for the past 3 years), I have helped the Lil Divas  make a hand & foot print turkey. I LOVE seeing these cute little guys on display. The turkeys appear so much bigger to me this year - makes me a bit sad. My babies are growing so fast. This is exactly the reason why I enjoy having these keepsakes. It freezes time just a little bit and I get to enjoy these small hands & feet that will never be this size again.

Stand-up Hand & Foot Print Turkey

What You Need:

brown, yellow, red & orange construction paper

TP roll

pencil

scissors

glue

wiggly eyes (optional)

What To Do:

1. The Lil Divas traced their hand & foot print.

It is wonderful to see them do this independently -

the tracings are far from perfect but they are all their own which is fabulous!

2. The Lil Divas cut out their footprints. 

I folded the paper over so they made/cut 2 at a time.

3. I cut out the handprints since we needed 6.

4. To make the turkey's body -

we used 2 overlapping footprints and glued them together as seen below.

5. To make the feathers-

glue the 6 handprints in various colors to the back of the body (see below).

6. Attach the turkey to a TP roll to enable it to stand up.

7. Display.

We have them on our dining room table

& they make the cutest centerpieces/decoration.

Handprint Turkey Keepsake

Every year each of the Lil Divas also makes a painted handprint turkey.

I LOVE seeing those little handprints.

It makes me both happy and sad to see how much bigger 

they get from year to year.

What You Need:
brown, red, orange, yellow & green washable paint
card stock
marker

This year even the youngest got to do it on her own.

What To Do:

1. Paint the palm & thumb brown for the turkey's body.

2. Paint the remaining fingers in the assorted colors for feathers

My Littlest Diva enjoyed the hand painting paint part immensely and managed to keep the paint solely on her hand = Fabulous!

3. Press handprint firmly onto card stock.

4. Add an eye, beak, waddle & feet to complete the turkey (see below).

I plan to add a photo of these adorable handprints to our family calendar for next year. I know the grandparent will enjoy seeing these little gems.

Books We Read:

Bern

Looking for more Thanksgiving crafts & fun -

we have more!