Embossing powder.  And a clear ink pad.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these sweet little prints:

Not pictured: a canvas, paper, or block of wood.  I bought a 3 pack of thin canvases at Walmart for around $3.50.  Super cheap.  I bought all the rest of the supplies over the years at Michaels.

The embossing heat tool is necessary, and no, you can’t use a bow drier instead.  A blow drier will blow the powder right off your canvas, but the embossing tool shoots out less air but a lot of heat.  If you have a friend who scrapbooks or stamps, maybe you could borrow theirs 😉

I used sterling silver embossing powder, but any metallic will do, or even non-metallic.  You can buy embossing powder in tons of colors at Michaels or Joanns for cheap.

The VersaMark Watermark stamp pad is a must, too.  It’s great because it’s clear, so it doesn’t make a big mess!  You can use any small paintbrush for this project.

Directions:

Step 1:   Decide if you want a plain white canvas or a colored one.  If you want it colored, you’ll need to paint it.  I just spray painted mine with some Krylon spray paint I had on hand that I used for these DIY Party Serving Dishes, and it was dry and ready to go in just a few minutes.

Step 2:  Practice with your child where their hand will go on the canvas, show them how far apart you want their fingers, and practice pressing down their hand.

Press the ink pad onto your child’s hand, making sure to ink the whole palm, and the entire length of the fingers.  The ink is clear, so be sure to be thorough.  Carefully press your child’s hand onto the canvas.  Have them hold their hand still while you press down on the palm, and then each finger, to make sure that they are leaving a print on the canvas.  Carefully lift up their hand.  Repeat with the other hand.

Step 3:  While your child washes their hands, generously sprinkle the metallic embossing powder over the handprints.  I use almost the whole bottle each time, because I want to make sure that I get a nice dark print, and that the whole print gets covered.  Don’t worry, you can make tons of handprints out of just one bottle!  Gently shake off the excess powder onto a piece of paper, and funnel the powder back into the bottle.

Step 4:  Use the paintbrush to carefully brush off any excess powder off of the canvas.  This is important, because once you heat up the canvas, you won’t be able to remove any extra little pieces of powder, and they will be stuck on your canvas forever.

Step 5:  Now for the fun part!  Turn on the heat tool, and hold it above the handprints, focusing on one spot at a time.  Watch in amazement as the powder begins to melt together and raise up off the paper into a beautiful metallic masterpiece!  Be sure to heat all areas of the handprints until they are raised and shiny and metallic.  You can frame the canvas (or paper or wood), or just leave it as is.  It looks great either way!

Aren’t they lovely?  Those are my daughter’ hands on the purple, and my cute son’s hands on the blue…