Father’s Day Crafts

Morning y’all and welcome back! Today I am excited to share with you two different crafts that Andee and I made for Father’s Day. Now I know Father’s Day has already come and gone, but these crafts make great gifts for any occasion – birthdays, Christmas, or just a little something to say “I’m thinking of you!”

The first project we made was an apron for Keenan that says, “Pick Your Meat”. Andee’s handprint and footprint make up the cow, pig, fish and turkey. I found this idea on Pinterest, and you can check it out here.

The second project we made was a finger-painted canvas with Andee’s initials on it. I got this idea from my sister-in-law who made a similar project with my nephew when he was around the same age as Andee. I absolutely loved the canvas he made me, so we decided to replicate it for Andee’s grandpas.

Materials:

I found everything I needed for both projects from Michaels.

• White apron
• Crayola washable paint in colors black, white, brown, orange, red, peachy keen, blue and coral
• Black fabric paint pen
• Letter stickers (It doesn’t matter what the stickers actually look like as long as you like the shape of the letters)
• Canvases

Other materials I used were paper plates and a small paint brush I had lying around the house.

What We Did:

For the apron project, I first wrote out “Pick Your Meat” with the paint pen. And then the fun part began…! I put a bit of paint on a paper plate that I could then throw away and put Andee’s hand in it. This was the first time she had ever touched paint, and she was all for the wet, goopy sensation. I then tried to help her place her hand down nicely on the apron, whiiiicccchhh may or may not have worked well. LOL!

Andee loved squishing the paint and fabric in her hand, so it turned out a little funky looking, but still workable. I washed off her hand in between different paint colors and we repeated the process to get the base down for the turkey, cow and fish. The pig was the easiest of all because we made the base with her foot, which she can’t squish in the same way as her hand. Ha!

Once this dried, I added some accents, like the faces, tails and spots, with a little paint brush I already had in my crafting collection. At first I thought it might have been redundant to buy the coral color of paint as well as the peachy keen, but I ended up using the peachy keen to make the snout stand out on the pig’s face. I suppose I could have just mixed the coral with some white to get the same effect, but oh well, I bought both! I added a little note on the bottom saying “Father’s Day 2021” and “To Dad, Love Andee”.

For the canvas project, I first placed the letter stickers of ALP (Andee Lynn Piller) on the bottom right corner of each canvas. Then I put plops of different colors of paint (I think I used white, blue, coral, peachy keen, orange and red) on a paper plate. I let Andee play in the paint a bit and then I helped her smear it across the canvas. Once the paint dried I removed the stickers and voila! We had created a beautifully finger painted master piece. 

I really liked how the colors all blended together on the canvases, but you certainly could have used only one color. That’s what my nephew did for me, and I love it!

Baby Safety and Clean Up

In terms of paint safety and clean up, I read online that Crayola washable paints were safe for babies. This was a must for me when buying crafting paint because of course Andee put her painted hands straight in her mouth… and then cried. Lol! I’m sure it didn’t taste very well. I had Andee down to her diaper while doing these projects and sat her in her high chair for the finger painting portion. She did get paint everywhere, but it was so easy to clean up, so I didn’t really care.

My only regret about these projects is that I didn’t help Andee make more canvases. I absolutely love how they turned out, and will probably be making more for other gifts or for decorations around our house. Or lets be real… I’ll probably do all the above! Ha!

I am such a crafty girl myself and cannot WAIT to do more with Andee as she gets older. Have y’all done any fun crafts with your babies? Let me know in the comments below! Happy day y’all!