Footprint Keepsake Craft

I'm linking to the "I Made It" blog party at Everything Etsy.

A number of weeks ago, I had on one of my to-do lists a 'craft' of sorts. I finished it... although not completely (I wanted to know what we were having before 'finalizing' it), and took pics of the process so I could post them here for all of you. I think this would make a great baby gift idea.

I got the idea from a gift I had gotten when M was born from a bunch of my acc buddies (thanks guys!). I couldn't let just M have all the fun, so I decided to make one myself for our newest addition. Since I didn't know what we were having, I decided to make it fairly gender neutral, and to add boy or girl embellishments when the baby bundle arrived.

Footprint Keepsake

You will need
- cardboard
- circle cutter (I got mine from Walmart... great for scrapbooking)
- patterned paper
- white card stock
- ribbon
- embellishments
- pretty 'cord' of sorts (got mine from Dollarama... cheap and pretty)
- scissors
- exact-o knife
- hot glue gun/glue, and white glue
- clear plastic 'paper' of sorts (I re-use the stuff from toy boxes and the like)

First, cut your pieces. Take the largest setting on your cutter (mine is 5.5 inches) and cut a circle two inches in diameter smaller than that (3.5 inches for me). Without moving the cutter, cut one at the largest setting (at 5.5 inches). You may need to go over this with an exact-o knife. Repeat for a second circle. Next, cut two more, this time with diameters of 3.75 inches and 5.5 inches (again, don't move the cutter before you mark the larger hole). This is where the paper will go. For the 'plastic', cut at 5 inches diameter. Keep the inside circles of the second set of rings. These will hold the footprints in place.

Tape the plastic to the two circles that have the smaller center hole (the 3.5inch diameter hole).

Glue the second set of rings over the first set, with the plastic sandwiched between them.

Cut your paper to the same size as the first set of circles, two pieces with 3.5 inches and 5.5 inches as their diameters. Glue to the outside of the corresponding cardboard ring.

Using hot glue, put ribbon all the way around the outside of your 'rings' to make a finished edge (it looks so much nicer than cardboard).

Using your white card stock, cut as many white circles with a 3 5/8 diameter as you wish. These are for the actual footprint/hand print. If you mess up doing the print, you can always cut more.

Grab your decorative cord and hot glue it around the edge over top of the white ribbon. Also, glue around the inside edge by the plastic to cover that bit of cardboard. Cut a small piece, and make a hanging loop for at the top.

Pick your embellishments and stick them to the top of your craft... voila! A footprint keepsake handmade and ready for your arrival!

Enjoy! :)