One fish two fish, perfect Dr. Seuss keepsake craft to make with your kids

A person’s a person no matter how small

-Dr. Seuss

Our family loves Dr. Seuss so naturally every year on his birthday, March 2nd, we celebrate him in some way. Usually we read his books and make a fun snack or just for fun craft in honor of him.

But this year we went a little extra with it. Our oldest daughter is getting older, about to hit middle school next year {I have no idea where that time went} so I know that the days of doing fun keepsake projects with her handprints are numbered. I fully took advantage of the opportunity to make this adorable ONE FISH TWO FISH craft with all four of my sweet daughters handprints.

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Here’s how you can make your own at home

supplies you’ll need:

• Cricut cutting machine

• 5.5”x16” wood board

• sandpaper {I used my RYOBI cordless sander}

• gray stain

• gloves

• 2 lint free cloths

• acrylic paints {red, blue, green, yellow, black, white}

• sponge brushes

• white vinyl

• small detail brush

1. CUT OUT DECALS

Using my Cricut cutting machine I cut all the lettering out first. My projects usually go much smoother if I have all of the decals and accents cut out before I start staining and painting. If you don’t have a cutting machine you can always write the lettering with a chalk pen or permanent marker. My hand writing isn’t so neat but my Cricut does a great job ;)!

2. CUT & STAIN WOOD

First give your board a light sanding, then stain. Be sure to watch my HOW TO STAIN WOOD video if you’ve never done this before. Let your board dry for 24 hours before the next step.

3. DISTRESS EDGES

After your board has dried you’ll want to give it a quick sanding on all surfaces of the board. I always focus more on the edges and corners. Using a RYOBI cordless sander works great for this but you can use regular sandpaper if you need to. Wipe with a lint free cloth to get all the dust off, you don’t want this on there when you go to paint.

4. PAINT

You’ll need RED, BLUE, GREEN, and YELLOW for this next step. I went ahead and made pencil marks for where I wanted the girl’s hands to hit. That way I could map out where they would be and I wouldn’t have either too much space or not enough space left.

You’ll want to do one handprint at a time. Coat the hand in a fairly good amount of paint but not too much, you don’t want a glob of paint to be left on the board.

Gently guide their hands down on the board and press them lightly.

Before you add any facial features/gills you want their handprints to totally dry. If you don’t let them dry you will smudge the colors together.

5. APPLY VINYL DECALS

After all the paint is dry, totally 100% dry, add your vinyl decals. If your paint is not completely dry the vinyl will not stick to the board. I use a vinyl squeegee to help get the decals down really good. Then peel the transfer tape off.

Now it’s ready for you to hang and enjoy in your home.

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Apple Stamping, how to make a precious Autumn keepsake art project with your toddler

DIY keepsake apple stamping canvas art for your toddler

I LOVE fall! I love the colors, the smell, the oversized clothing to keep you warm on the cool Midwest days….I love it all.

This fall I took our four girls to a small off the beaten path apple orchard. Seriously these are the best kind of farms! The people are always so nice and the atmosphere is just so welcoming.

We had all these apples {literally 30lbs of apples, I know it sounds crazy but at $1/lb I thought if nothing else it was cheap educational entertainment for our girls} and I thought, why not do a fun little craft with them at our CRAFT STUDIO for our TOTS IN THE SHOP day. So we did! Boy did all the toddlers have the best time making a mess and painting with apples.

If your tot is anything like ours you’ll end up with a gorgeous blend of fall colors…but she had so much fun and that makes my heart happy!

Seriously, look how proud that girl is! Smiling from ear to ear with her artwork!

Affiliate Disclosure. Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, which means that I may earn a small commission if you click on the link or make a purchase using the link. If you make a purchase you will not be charged anything additional.

Here’s what you need to make your own at home

• 1 apple cut in half

• 1 fork

• fall colored paints {we used yellow, orange, red, brown, green}

• 1 - 8”x10” canvas

• pencil

• small paint brush

• your sweet little artist

Start by tracing your toddler’s hand and the upper part of the forearm on the canvas with a pencil. Do this lightly so you can easily hide the pencil mark with your paint.

Next you want to paint the inside of where you traced with brown. This will be the trunk of your tree. Some moms in our class painted this for their tots but our sweet girl wanted to paint hers all by herself. I think she did a pretty great job {go Millie!}

Once the brown is dry you can start stamping away. We stuck forks in our apples so the kiddos could hold onto the apple a little better but you can just pick the apple up with your hand if you’d like.

We used discarded pieces of cardboard to squirt our paint on. Put some paint on there, dip the half apple in, smear it around a bit so it gets a good coat, then stamp it right on the canvas. This is going to be messy, embrace it! This is how your little one learns and explores.

Keep stamping till your tot is satisfied with their little work of art.

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