A few weeks ago, Gracen’s {great} aunt sent me this photo of a footprint butterfly flower pot and asked if Miss G could make her one. After some serious detective work, I believe that the photo was originally shared on Carol’s Classic Gifts and Decor’s Facebook page, but I could be wrong (please correct me if I am!) Though there were no instructions attached, the project looked pretty straight forward, we went for it.
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Here’s what we used… A clay pot large enough to fit Grae’s growing feet on the side, some acrylic paint, a few old foam paintbrushes, a black Sharpie (though black paint and a fine brush or a paint pen would be great also), and lastly, a matte spray-on clear coat.
Because of the potentially {very} messy nature of this project, we opted to do it outside with the garden hose and a pile of old rags nearby (and I’m thankful we did…things got MESSY despite my precautionary steps). To get started, I applied a thick layer of paint to Grae’s foot. In our case, we used purple and green (Auntie Judy’s favourite colours) with a little bit of white in the middle, but you could obviously use any colours you like. One thing I would say is that if you want the colours to mix together where they meet, you should probably help them along with your paintbrush while on the foot. I expected the mixing to sort of naturally happen when Grae’s foot was pressed down on the pot, but it didn’t (not a lot, at least).
We carefully pressed one foot onto the pot, washed it off, then painted the other foot and pressed it on so that the two straight edges were in the middle (with a small space between them) and the two arched edges were pointing outwards.
After giving the footprints a few minutes to dry, I used the Sharpie to draw a very simple butterfly body and antennae in the centre.
Then we flipped the pot over and wrote a little message so that Auntie Judy will remember who made the pot and when it was created years down the road.
As a final step, I gave the butterfly part of the pot a light spray of matte sealant, just to make it a little more durable. Ten minutes later it was dry and we had an adorable personalized gift that was both easy and inexpensive to make.
If you love making personalized gifts, be sure to check out our ‘I love you’ pillowcase, our hand-shaped ring dish, our clay handprint keepsakes, and our paper strip handprint keepsake.
♥
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I absolutely love this idea.. I want to do this project with my granddaughter as a gift to her mommy!!
Thanks, Nita! That’s so sweet of you… It would make for a PERFECT mommy gift!
What an adorable gift, Jen! Pinning this. :)
Thanks, Jackie! I’m glad you like it! :)
Love this! We are about to have VBS and I am going to do this with our preschool (3 & 4) year olds. We will have about 4 of them and it will be great.
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your project! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/butterfly-footprint-flower-pot/
If you have other kid-friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
Is it not dangerous to use ceramic paint on baby’s skin??
Sorry I’m referring to the platter with love on it…the v is done by the baby’s feet using ceramic paint
What a wonderful idea! I just love it.
Hi Jen! This is such a wonderful and creative idea! We are working on similar project and would love to get your feedback. Please visit Mybabyprints.com and let us know what you think!
Going to do this for my extended daughter and her Mom for Mother’s Day… with the exception… I’m doing it on a canvas and have it framed. Thank you so much for the idea… They BOTH LOVE butterflies….
Lovely idea, thank you x
What could I use instead of matte sealant that is cheap?
Maybe modpodge if you have it. Not sure how it will hold up outside though. May be more costly than a can of the spray.
I Want to do this w/ all of my grand babies for me
Is it safe to use these paints on children?
Do you think it would be able to do it in a surface and transfer to the pot? If so what should I use for the transfer material?
Do not use matte sealant it will discolor the pot. Ruined my whole project.
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