Hand Print Tree Art — Olive & Love

Inspired on Pinterest by Liz over at the Naptime Decorator, I decided to make hand print trees last December. We made three in total, one for each set of Grandparents and one to keep.

The little guy started off by sponge painting a light blue onto the three papers. (For a complete list of colors, scroll to bottom of post). We used a sea sponge for an organic texture and because it fit easily into his little hand.

My nearly six year old daughter made finger print clouds with white paint.

If I were to do this project again, I think I would skip the clouds as they are a bit distracting from the final tree.

I painted the tree brown using a small artist brush, with one branch per person.

I chose 2 different shades of green for the handprints. (Okay, well maybe three, but scroll to the end for details about that.) The darkest two were printed first by my husband and myself. The kids' green was a bit brighter.

I painted their hand using a paintbrush and then stamped it on the paper.

Everyone had to be in a good mood to not wiggle free.

But when painting our bodies, it's hard to not be happy!

I placed my eldest son's hand in the middle since it's the largest. Even though my kids are all two and a half years apart, my middle child and my youngest have the same size hands so they looked nice and balanced on the sides;

...very pleasing to my libra instincts.

For a final touch, my eldest son used his finger to create green grass and my daughter used her pinky to make yellow flowers.

I have my final piece framed in a thrift store frame that I found already painted in the perfect shade of green. It is hung at sitting eye level in my living room.

I used the colors I could find in my craft paint drawer:

Deep Ocean Blue by Folk Art - sky

Medium Foliage Green by Delta - adult hands

Green Sea by Delta - kid hands second coat

Timberline Green - kid hands first coat (I tried using this color first but I wasn't grooving on it so I covered it in a second coat. I repeated the process for the next two trees because I liked the depth it created)

Burnt Umber by Delta - tree

Clover by Folk Art - Grass

some random yellow for the flowers

In case you are interesting is seeing the chaos that is my kitchen counter, here is a full shot:

Another reason I love the location of my hand print tree?

.......

I no longer have to stare at the hole in the wall!

Voila!

Problem solved!