Autumn Fingerprint Trees

One of my favorite Autumn craft/activities that I did a few times when Brianna was younger is making Autumn Fingerprint Trees. You can read about other times we've done this activity here and here. 

This year, we had planned a playdate with our friend, Sadie, and I thought this would be the perfect time to do this project. I printed out a blank tree for each child, dug out my ink, and got a spot all prepared for our craft. Not long after Sadie got to our house, we sat down to tackle the project. I asked Sadie if she wanted to do a project with us, and she said, "I don't like projects." Haha! So, we called it an "activity" instead of a project, and she jumped on board.

Brooke and Brecklyn ended up taking a super long morning nap this day, so they missed out on doing the activity with us. I was actually kind of thankful as that would have been hard to manage. We did, however, do it with them a few weeks later. 

Brenson could do this almost independently which was really nice for me. It also hurt my heart just a little! 

Miss Sadie really did enjoy this, although her face doesn't show it. I haven't had much time for crafting lately, and discovered that most of my ink is no longer good. Sad day :-(, but we made it work anyway.

Sweet Sadie stamping away

Brenson with his finished product

Sadie didn't want to pose with her finished tree, but I thought they both came out pretty cute. I cut them down to 8" by 10" size before we stamped on them so that they'll fit nicely in a frame. I love handcrafted decorations!

A few weeks later (during Thanksgiving break), Chris helped me do this project with the babies. I have a Fingerprint Tree from both Brianna and Brenson as a baby, so I wanted ones from Brooke and Brecklyn, as well. 

Brecklyn doesn't really like having her hands manipulated, so this was a bit of a challenge with her. 

Haha . . . WHAT is he doing to me, Mom?

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We got the job done, though, and it's SO cute!

Brooke is much more like Brianna and allowed me to do whatever I needed to with her hand.

She may have even enjoyed it a little :-).

I love this little expression <3 .="" p="">

Brooke was obviously pretty excited about the finished product!

I so enjoy doing crafts with my littles, even though it's much harder now than it used to be. Really, it's finding the time that is the challenge, but I'm always thankful I did. I hope these Fingerprint Trees will be a special keepsake for years to come!