Fingerprint Ornaments

Thanks to DecoArt for providing the paint used in this project!

Everyone decorates their Christmas tree a little differently, which is what makes them so much fun!  Our tree is a hodge podge of all kinds of ornaments; some that hubby and I received as children, some that are storebought, and plenty that are handmade.  I personally treasure handmade ornaments the most, particularly the ones Little Crafter helps me make, because I feel like it’s one more way of remembering what he was like at each age and stage when we celebrate Christmas.  This year, one of our projects involved preserving his five year old thumb and finger prints by turning them into festive and adorable ornaments: take a look!

My original inspiration for this project came from a pin I saw where someone had taken her son’s thumbprint and turned it into a reindeer.  I thought it was unbelievably cute, so naturally we had to make some of our own.

For instructions and more photos of how cute these can be, check out the post that inspired me from Little Bit Funky!  But, we also took things a step further by making a variation.  We turned his fingerprints into snowmen!  This way, we could tie them on packages and people would get different things; for example, Grandma gets a snowman while Pop-Pop gets a reindeer.

The snowmen were particularly hard to photograph because the ornaments are so shiny that I got all kinds of reflections and lighting issues.  But hopefully you get an idea of how cute they are.

We used:
– small glass ornaments {I found a pack of 18 for a reasonable price at Target and chose silver because all the colors of paint would show up}
– DecoArt Multi-Surface and Gloss Enamels paints: brown, red, green, white, and black
– toothpicks
– small paintbrushes

 To make the snowman, we dipped LC’s index finger in white paint and placed it on the ornament three times, one on top of the other.  Then, after the prints were dry, I went back and added details.  I used a small brush for the hat, nose, and scarf.  I found that a toothpick worked best to create eyes, buttons, and even the stick arms.

One thing I noticed as we were hanging ornaments on LC’s tree this year was that I haven’t always been stellar at remembering to put dates on the ones we’ve created.  So, I made sure to flip these over when they were dry and paint the year.  If you use 3D Gloss Enamels, there’s a great writing tip that makes this part easy.

That’s it!  Now they’re ready to tie onto your packages so that your family and friends can enjoy them!

Hugs & Glitter,