Shrinky Dinks
My husband doesn’t often read my blog , so hopefully these next few weeks are too busy at work and he skips this post since I hope to surprise him with this on Father’s Day. I wanted to make him something he could carry with him, but not be embarrassed to, or look unprofessional. This little key chain is well, little and won’t clutter up his office.
- Gather your materials. You will need, your child’s footprint, shrinky dinks, a colored pencil, a key chain , hole punch, scissors , some card stock, double sided tape, and a pen or marker.
- Start by tracing your child’s foot on the shrinky dink plastic . As you can see I am tracing my child’s footprint which he did at school for a tee-shirt. I wanted the whole thing to be a surprise so I did this while they were out together at a baseball game. My 3 year old has loose lips lately.
- Cut out the foot and punch a hole in it. You may want to make the hole a little bigger than a plain hole punch size, I had to carefully strtch ours when the shrinky dink was still hot to make our key chain fit.
- Shrink! Follow the directions on the shrinky dink package carefully.
- While it’s cooling write out a poem like the one below on the card stock, back it with some fun paper, tape the two together.
- Punch a hole and thread the key chain through both.
The Poem
My Footprint is small but getting bigger everyday,
I am learning how to be big by watching you work, love and play.
Remember when your days are long and you can’t walk another mile,
That this little footprint makes it all worthwhile.
My son and I are often together. He doesn’t cry when I leave him at preschool, or with family but by bedtime he wants one person only. Mama. This week I am going to Nashville for Blissdom, a social media conference for women and it will be the 3rd time I have been away from my son in his life. I hate leaving him and this activity was as much for me as him. His hand will be for me to wear when we are away and mine for him to wear if and when he misses me. * I wanted to add an idea that a Twitter follower had which was using this for military families during deployment! Fantastic!
- Gather your materials. Today we are using Shrinky Dinks- yes they still exist! I got ours at Micheal’s, as well as colored pencils, scissors, a baking sheet with parchment paper, a hole punch and some ribbon or plastic thread. My son picked his out, honestly I would use ribbon if I were you, the plastic thread doesn’t lay flat when you wear it.
- Start by tracing your little one’s hand with a colored pencil.
- Ask them to dictate ( or write if they can) what they want to say.
- Have them color it.
- Make your own hand as well. Remember your hand will be worn by your child so write them a note.
- Cut out.
- Punch a hole in each.
- Watch them shrink.
- Don’t take your eyes off them when they lay flat it’s time to take them out.
- Let cool and thread the ribbon and thread through.
- Pop it on and when you miss each other you have a message to remind you of the bond and love you share! He is showing me how he will kiss it when I am away !
Book
This is the book that inspired this activity and it would be wrong not to include it!
The Kissing Hand
