How to Make Watercolor Handprints

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Hi, it’s Jackie from Teal & Lime here.  Today I have an easy and quick way to capture your little one’s handprints.

I will never get over how quickly my little boys hands grow.  I have a growth chart marking their height.  I see them grow out of clothes everyday.  But, how their tiny hands expand captivates me.  I remember how itty bitty and fragile those sweet baby fingers were.  Even at 4 and 6, their little fingers are still pudgy and uncoordinated, but they are so much bigger than those baby fingers.

I love using their handprints for gifts year after year.  It never gets old.  And, each time we do it, the end result is completely different.  Their little hands are always growing.

My mother and mother-in-law love nothing more than art my kids make for them, and they are just as smitten with their tiny hands as I am. With Mother’s Day around the corner, I came up with this special art project to do with the kids.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

I first learned about using rubber cement as a resist from Sand & Sisal. She did this fantastic stenciled water color project with her kids. I loved everything about it, but for a Mother’s Day gift, I wanted to make something a bit more personalized.

We decided to make watercolor “handprints”. These make pretty art prints, but would also be really cute on the front of a card.

My boys had a ton of fun making their rainbow colored hands. This project got rave reviews and they are begging to redo it with more shapes.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

How to Make Water Color Handprints

Supplies:

  • Watercolors and paint brushes
  • Watercolor paper
  • Pencil
  • Rubber Cement
  • And, cute little kids hands 🙂

Steps:

1. Trace your little’s hand onto watercolor paper.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com
2. Use rubber cement to mask off the area you don’t want painted. We tried these 3 different techniques:

  • Painting rubber cement inside the hand outline (leaving a white handprint inside the watercolor)
  • Painting rubber cement around the outside of the handprint (confining watercolor inside the handprint)
  • Half and half, where we drew a line down the center. On one side we painted rubber cement inside the hand and on the other side we used rubber cement outside the hand.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

3. Let the rubber cement dry.

4. Paint with watercolor, inside or outside the rubber cement lines. The rubber cement resists the watercolor, but try not to paint on top of it too much, because if there are any gaps in the rubber cement the color will seep through.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

5. Let the watercolor dry completely.

6. With your finger gently rub off the dried rubber cement revealing your watercolor masterpiece. As an added benefit, the rubber cement will erase the pencil when you rub it off.  Use the pencil eraser to clean up any leftover pencil lines.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

Here is what are final art prints look like:

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

How cool is the rubber cement resist?  The possibilities of this technique are endless.  And, it is a precious way to capture their tiny hands in one moment in time.

Easy Watercolor Handprints | Teal & Lime for KristenDukePhotography.com

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