Hand- and Footprint Owls

I wanted to do something with the kids' prints for Grandparents' Day cards.  No doubt because our family has been obsessed with owls for the last year, an owl came to mind.  I had to make three: one for each set of grandparents and one for me!  Here's how these cute feathered friends came to be.  I apologize for forgetting to take pictures of each step.

First, I painted Ellie's feet with brown paint.  (I did one foot at a time, assembly-line fashion, to keep the mess at bay.)  I pressed her feet on the paper with her toes toward the bottom of the paper.  I had the toes, or tail feathers, overlap so the owl's head had enough width, and the blank spot left by the arch of her feet had paint all the way around.  You could fill in the blank spot with a brush if you want, but I like multicolored owls.  :o)

Next, I painted Mikey's hands with the same brown paint, though you could use a lighter brown for more color.  (Again, I did one hand at a time.)  I wanted his fingers together to make more wing-like wings, but he's 22 months old and doesn't like paint on his hands.  I pressed his hands down with the palms overlapping the owl's body.

The next part could be done by an older child, but neither my 3.5 year old nor my 22 month old would have done well with this.  I put white paint just on half the edge of a round sponge brush.

I pressed the sponge into the owl's body to create U-shaped feather accents from neck to feet.  Then I pressed it into each wing feather (finger) with the bottom of the U facing the tip of the finger.

Finally, I cut triangles and trapezoids out of card stock for the beaks and feet.  I glued on those and googly eyes.  I would have had Ellie do the gluing, but she was napping.  Oh, and I used gold glitter glue because I couldn't find my craft glue, but I don't think it looks bad.

  I finished off the cards with recent photos of the kids.