Crafting with Carter

I have always loved making fun and pretty crafts to decorate our home.  My house is filled with pinterest inspired wall hangings and decorations.  Now that Carter has come along, I am loving the chance to create crafts and presents with him.  I have especially enjoyed creating holiday themed crafts.

For Christmas we created salt dough ornaments using Carter’s handprint and footprint.  We made the ornaments when he was about 5 days old.  I will treasure them forever.  I already can’t believe how small his hands and feet once were!  When we first started making the ornaments he screamed each time I put his hand or foot into the dough.  That was rough for both mommy and daddy!  We quickly realized the trick was to warm the dough up so it wasn’t cold when we put his hand/foot in it.  After that he just slept through making them with no trouble at all.

The recipe we used was:

·         2 cups flour

·         1 cup salt

·         1 cup water

We rolled the dough into balls and then used a rolling pin to flatten it out.  Then we baked the ornaments at 200 degrees for 3 hours.

I am so in love with handprint/footprint crafts.  I know I will love looking back and seeing how small my little man once was!  For Valentine’s Day we made a footprint craft present for grandparents and for Ty.  I found the idea here.  Then I tweaked it a little bit.  I used frames with a large mat instead of a canvas like she did.  This probably wouldn’t work unless you have a very new baby or a custom sized mat.  Carter’s feet barely fit and he was 2 months old at the time.  We took the same idea and created cards for aunts, uncles, and great grandparents.  We also did a Valentine’s Day photo shoot so we could include adorable photos of Carter!  

I used a red stamp pad from Michael’s and just used baby wipes to clean his feet when we were finished.  The trickiest part was that Carter likes to roll his toes up.  I would make his footprint and then look down and there would be no toe marks!  Then I would have to unroll his toes and press them down above the footprint.  He is a tricky little baby!

My latest project wasn’t a craft, it’s a decoration.  I wanted to save Carter’s going home from the hospital outfit and I saw this cute idea here.  I decided to make a shadow box and add his hospital bracelet too.  I love it!

I’m looking forward to our next project, whatever it may be!