Grandparents Day Handprint Owl Gift

Before I was a teacher, I will admit that I didn’t know much about Grandparents Day but after my first year, I saw how much fun it was to celebrate the special relatives in the lives of my students. At every school I taught at we would have a special Grandparents Day lunch and make a craft for the students to gift to the special person who came to eat with them. As a mom, I now love creating cute gifts for the grandparents in our lives and this year I braved paint with the baby to make a Grandparents Day Handprint Owl Gift!

Grandparents Day Handprint Owl Gift

Grandparents Day is on September 7th this year. W doesn’t start preschool until a few days later, so we had some time to sit down and make some special gifts for the grandparents in our lives. I am a huge fan of hand print crafts because I love the way they capture the child’s size in that moment.

So this year we went with Grambo’s currently love for owls and made a crafty little owl with a touch of handprint love!

What you need:

• 8×10 canvas
• 2 sheets of scrapbook paper (one for the body of the owl and one for the legs and beak)
• 1 sheet of white paper (for the eyes, I used ivory cardstock)
• Coordinating color of acrylic paint
• Glue
• Scissors
• Permanent marker

You can freehand the shapes for the owl body, legs, beak, and eyes. Or if you’re using an 8×10 canvas, you can download my template to trace your shapes and they will fit! Download the Owl Always Love You Grandparents Day Handprint Gift template to get started!

What you do:

1. Trace and cut your owl body parts on your chosen scrapbook paper. I recommend you trace on the back so your pencil marks don’t show on your finished product.
2. Lay pieces on to owl to double check that sizing works well. Trim anything that is necessary.
3. Draw pupils on owl eyes with crayon.
4. Glue all pieces onto canvas.
5. Break out the paint and your child’s hand.
6. Use handprint with thumb up to create a wing on each side of the owl.
7. Add “Owl Always Love You” text with permanent marker.

I will admit that breaking out the paint is always the part that gets me a bit scared. When I do hand print crafts I often use a washable stamp pad but for the canvas, I’ve found that the paint works better.

If you have someone who can help you and be a second pair of hands to wash little painted hands, it works out pretty well. I recommend that you only use a thin layer of paint because you can use a brush to fill in the hand print a bit afterwards.

I’m so thankful that my kids have many of their grandparents living nearby. Family is so important and always a great reason to celebrate no matter what day!