Create Gift Tote Bags Using Hand and Foot Prints and Dollar Store Bags

To thank my mom for generously caring form my kids two days a week during the last five school years, the kids and I made her a little keepsake: a tote bag with a butterfly made from the kids' footprints and flowers from their hands.


 

Although the painting and drying process made this project span a couple of evenings, the low cost (bags from Dollar Tree) and overall simplicity of the project led us to make one of these totes for the kids' teacher as an end of the year gift as well.

  

I squirted two colors of acrylic fabric paint on a plastic container lid, layering them in a zig-zag pattern before pressing the kids hands and feet in it and then onto the bags.  I made one hand and one footprint for both kids and stamped Grandma (and Ms. Kelly) below the flowers with letter stamps.  Under the butterfly I used a period stamp from my letter set to make its swirly path.  A pencil eraser would also work for that.  I painted the body of the butterfly and the stem and leaf for the flowers and wasn't super concerned about perfection for any of it.  Flaws add a bit of charm to this kind of thing, I think.