Little Hands

Coming up with holiday gifts can be so hard. I know that know that we are adults our holiday family get togethers are a bit different. We used to spend way too much time trying to figure out what to get everyone for the holidays and always ended up frustrated. Once we become adults we usually buy what we need to and move on with our lives without lofty wish lists to hand out for all. Finally, a few years ago we decided to just focus on the children of the family, our spouses and then do one handmade gift for each family. Phew. Goodbye absolutely unnecessary stress. I will admit though that even with just doing handmade gifts it’s hard to come up with fantastic ideas that will be useful and appreciated.

Every year I make ornaments with A and we give them to all of the grandparents mark the year and her name. While those are one of my favorite traditions I don’t feel like it counts for the yearly handmade gift. I spoke about my love for unique one-of-a-kind projects like the hand and foot turkeys. Recently, I found a fun DIY project that is fun, totally customizable and something anyone on our list would appreciate.

These handprint trees by PaperRamma are so perfect. You can customize the colors, the people in the image and details even down to the birds or add pets. You have a few additional options: 8×10 or 11×14, as well as, printed or digital file. They do the rest. While I have created countless digital files and projects there is something to be said of a fantastic idea that takes minimal effort of my part. I was thrilled to find these.

For ours, we chose this print and  to do the 11×14 printed piece with customization of the colored words, a little girl to represent A and the dog to represent her new best friend, Millie. Since there is just her we had only her name put on the tree so it was special just for her. Once I had all of my customization requests figured out they sent me a final proof to make sure I loved it! That’s something I love about PaperRamma – they want to make sure you LOVE your print and will make it just the way you want it. Soon my print arrived in the mail in protective packaging and was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t wait to do this project with A. This time we were even lucky enough to have Ryan join in on the fun, which made it even more of a fun holiday activity.

We carefully painted A’s hands and decided to have a little fun with the positioning to make the tree look full. Going into the project we kept an open mind to the fact she is two and handprints might not come out perfect but that would be okay because that would make the piece even more special. Things went pretty fantastic. We have some tiny imperfections on it which to us make it perfect. All in all though, we got both hands done and we got everything dried and the photo in a frame.

Precious, right?

I feel like the possibilities are endless with this print and the other hand print art prints that are offered by PaperRamma. It worked great for us to do 4 of A’s hand prints but even if we had several more children we could fit them all on here by either one hand print each or even staggered hand prints with different colors representing each child. These are so customizable!

If you are looking for a one of a kind gift either for a spouse, grandparent or other loved one featuring your children’s little hands you will love these. And if you are a procrastinator like I usually am, you can place your digital file order as late as December 22nd and have it printed at a local print shop or location like Office Depot to create it on short notice! If you want a printed one like mine you have to hurry and get your order in no later than tomorrow Tuesday, December 9th for standard shipping or you can order as late as December 16th with Rush Shipping. If you head there now you’ll be set to go. Take a look around their shop and see if there is anything else you love. They have so many great items, including an elf on the shelf kit which my friend Erin recently shared about on her blog!  Even if these handprint trees might not be your thing PaperRamma has everything from maps to photo quotes – so many options – so take a moment to head over to PaperRamma and check them out!

What DIY Christmas gifts are you making with your children this year? Do you exchange store bought gifts or make handmade gifts?