Cute and Creative Handprint Crafts for Kids: 31 Easy DIY Projects for the Whole Family

Butterflies

Handprint butterflies can be made in a couple of different ways.

Paint

Use acrylic paint to paint the child’s palms, then press them to the paper with their thumbs touching and the rest of the fingers splayed out.

To make a monarch-looking butterfly, do a solid black butterfly, let it dry, and then paint everything but their thumbs orange and layer it on top of the black one.

Here’s a printable to make this craft even simpler!

Paper

Start by tracing both of your child’s hands on a piece of paper. Then cut out a butterfly body and antenna from paper and attach the wings to the back of the body.

You could also use a clothespin and pipe cleaners for a body and antenna. Decorate the wings with markers, glitter, or whatever other craft supplies you have before attaching them.

Coffee Filter Butterflies

The process is the same as the paper butterflies, but this handprint craft starts with preparing the paper.

Use washable markers to fully cover a coffee filter with doodles. Don’t worry about how they look because they’ll be blurring together. Use a spray bottle to saturate the filter and blend the colors. Then let them dry completely.

Trace a hand on each filter and cut it out. This works best with 2-3 handprints as each wing since they’re so thin.

Bunny Rabbit

Paint the palm and four fingers of your child’s hand white, leaving the thumb paint-free.

Leave space between the middle and ring finger (think Spock’s hand from Star Trek) and press the hand onto the center of a piece of colored paper.

Let it dry and use pink paint to make ovals for the inside of the ears and nose. Use a fine-tipped black marker to add details like eyes, whiskers, and a mouth.

Crab

Paint both palms bright red. Press them to the paper with the right fingers facing right and left fingers facing left. Let dry and glue a googly eye onto the top of each thumb.

Turtle with PomPoms

Trace a hand on green paper. Cut out a turtle head and attach it next to the pinky. The four fingers will act as legs and the thumb turns into a tail!

Use green pompoms to decorate the whole shell, and add an eye and smile with a black marker.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This handprint craft celebrates Eric Carle’s classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Paint the child’s palm green and fingers blue. Leave thumbs unpainted. Put three handprints next to each other, like segments of a caterpillar. Paint a red head at one end, let it dry, and add the classic yellow and green eyes along with brown antenna.

Finger Snowmen Ornament

This handprint craft works best with preschool kids and younger ones.

Paint the hand white and have them grab the bottom of a clear, plastic ornament. Once the paint has dried, use fine-tipped permanent markers to turn each finger into a snowman!

Cut Out Wreath

Trace and cut out a lot of green handprints. Cut out the center of a paper plate and glue on layers and layers of the cut-out hands. Add a few red paper berries.

Using multiple shades of green paper will add visual interest to this handprint craft.

Christmas Lights

Use this printable and add some handprint Christmas lights! Use yellow paint for “white” lights, or whatever colors you love.

Add your favorite Christmas saying or the year at the bottom to make it a keepsake.

3D Christmas Tree

Trace and cut six handprints on green construction paper. Then cut a rectangle from brown paper and a star from yellow.

Glue three handprints together, side by side. Layer two more on top, with the fingers pointing in the same direction as the bottom layer, then glue. Top it off with the last handprint, like a pyramid.

Glue the rectangle to the back of the bottom of the tree to make a trunk, and add the yellow star to the top. Paint on lights, or use gems or pom poms to decorate.

Reindeer Antlers

Use brown painted handprints to add antlers to this printable.

Add some strings of lights with a permanent marker and painted fingerprint lightbulbs.

Santa’s Beard Ornament

Mix up salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water) and roll it out ½-inch thick. Press a child’s hand into it gently with four fingers together and the thumb out as far as it will go.

Let it dry and then turn it so the fingers are pointing down. Paint fingers white, the palm skin-toned, and the top of the hand a thumb red. Hot glue a pom-pom to the end of the red hat and use a fine-tipped marker to add eyes and any other desired details.

Shamrock

Three green, painted handprints with a green stem coming from the bottom make a cute St. Patrick’s Day handprint craft. The first one goes up and down, then rotate handprints 90° to the left and right.

Leprechaun

Paint the child’s palm flesh colored and fingers bright orange. Press their hand down on this printable to make a magic little leprechaun.

Thankful Turkey

Paint the thumb and hand a deep brown. Paint each finger a different “fall” color. Press onto a plain sheet of paper and let dry.

Use a fine-tipped marker to add an eye and beak to the “head” (the thumb), and then ask the child to name four things they’re thankful for. Write one on each of the four feathers.

Spring Tree

Use brown paint to fully cover the child’s entire hand and the first few inches of their arm. Press the arm and hand onto a piece of paper and let dry.

Use bright green paint to add “leaf” dots. Add a few bright flowers for an extra springy touch!

Kite

Paint the hand a solid, bright color. Press it onto a sheet of plain paper and add a “tail” and bows with markers.

Summer Tree

Cover the child’s entire hand and the first few inches of their arm with brown paint. Press the arm and hand onto plain paper and let dry.

Use a piece of a sponge and green paint to cover the tree with green leaves.

Ice Cream Cone

Use brown, light pink, or cream paint to cover the child’s hand. Press it onto this printable, with the fingers facing the bottom of the cone, like melty, dripping ice cream.

Add a few scoops in different colors and “top” it with a painted red cherry.

Fall Tree

Cover the child’s entire hand and the first couple inches of their arm with brown paint and press it onto paper.

Use fall colors to add fall leaves to the tree after it’s dried. Make sure to add some actually falling and on the ground to make it realistic!

Campfire

Draw some logs on paper (or use this printable), and then it’s time to add fire!

If you’re comfortable blending paint, start with red at the bottom of the hand, blend into orange, and end with yellow on the fingers.

If blending makes you nervous, stick with solid colors. Start with a solid red hand and let it dry. Put a solid orange hand near, but not directly on top of, the red hand. Let it dry. Then repeat with a yellow handprint.

Winter Tree

Cover the child’s whole hand and the top few inches of their arm in brown paint. Press it onto a sheet of light blue construction paper.

Leave the tree bare and use white paint to put fingerprint snowflakes all over the page and the ground white.

Snowflakes

Use light blue paint to add a handprint to this printable. Add some clear or silver glitter to the wet paint for added pizzazz.

Garden Stone

Simple garden stone kits make a “complicated” handprint craft simple. They include everything you need to make a cement stone to put in your garden.

Gems, stones, and rubber letter stamps come with most of them. All you need is a little hand to press into the middle of the wet cement and you have a gift anyone will cherish!

Keepsake Mug

Use enamel paint to cover both of the kid’s hands. Have them hold a plain ceramic mug between their hands like they’re about to take a sip out of it.

Bake the mug in an oven on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes at 350°, leaving it in the oven to cool down afterward. That cures the paint and makes it much more durable.

Suncatchers

Prep this handprint craft by placing scraps of tissue paper between two pieces of clear contact paper. Overlap them, making sure the whole center of the paper is full of color.

Trace a child’s hand on the contact paper and cut it out. Punch a hole in the top of the palm, string a ribbon through, and hang it up in a window as a one-of-a-kind suncatcher.

Handprint Baseball

For sports lovers, this is a no-brainer! It’s especially sweet as a new dad gift.

Paint a small (works best for babies and toddlers) child’s hand with paint, and then get them to grab a baseball.

Place the baseball in a display case so Dad can always remember how small his baseball star’s hand was.

Washi Tape Cut Out

You’ll need washi tape, a picture frame, and two pieces of white cardstock trimmed to fit the frame for this handprint craft.

Start creating a rectangle of washi tape strips on one piece of cardstock. It should be longer and wider than the child’s hand.

Trace the hand on the other piece of cardstock and cut out the hand from the center of the cardstock, leaving the cardstock around the hand completely intact.

Place the cut-out on top of the washi tape rectangle, and place them both in the picture frame.

Handprint Wrapping Paper

Handprint crafts don’t have to be actual gifts for people to be used for gift-giving!

Grab a roll of brown kraft paper, cut off the amount you need to wrap a gift and cover it with painted handprints! This is cheaper and more thoughtful than any wrapping paper you could buy in a store.

Stacked Family Handprints

For this last handprint craft, you’ll need your whole family, different colors of paper for each family member, and a frame to hold your finished craft.

Trace and cut out each family member’s hand, then stack them up from biggest to smallest.

Place the stacked handprints behind glass in a frame and hang it on the wall to freeze this moment in your family’s life!