There was one morning when Jemma was around 4 months old when both Jeremy and I looked at her and thought, “When did her hands get so big?! What happened to her baby hands?!” *Insert crying emojis*

And then we lamented how fast babies grow up, which is something we do at least twice a week.

I was also annoyed that I didn’t make a handprint mold of her tiny baby hands when I had the chance. I did read, however, that it’s really hard to get a print of their teeny tiny hands because they still clench their fists at that age. So, meh.

All that to say, I vowed to make baby handprint ornaments for our Christmas tree that year…

…

And finally got around to it mid-January. Oops.

baby handprint ornament

I used the directions from this You’re So Martha blog post, with a few edits listed below.

  • I did not knead my dough very long, which is why the surface of my ornament is a little “rustic.” I was lazy. If you care for a super smooth surface, knead 7-10 minutes as the original directions say.
  • Baby’s hand was way bigger than I thought. I was going to stamp her name on the front, but I didn’t want my ornament to be the size of a dinner plate. Instead, I cut out the handprint using a mug and stamped on her name on the back after it finished baking.
  • The point of baking is to dry out the ornament. It was a wet and rainy day in the PNW when I did this (as usual). It took me FOUR HOURS to dry this out in the oven. Plan according to your climate!
  • I also chose to do just a thin layer of white paint at the end. I thought it made the shadows and the handprint pop a little more.

Anyway, this was super easy and created a cute, but functional memento! Hope you try it!