Fingerprint Art

Some days you just feel crafty.

Not in the "like a fox" way, but in the Martha Stewart without the staff and house and budget way.

Gran's birthday dinner is tonight and the kids and I were stumped as to what to get her. After all, great grandmothers don't usually need a lot of stuff but opening a present on any birthday is important and fun.

In a little ah-ha moment - and I swear it was not a Pinterest ah-ha moment - I realized we could do finger print art similar to what Joseph made me for Mother's Day. I came home yesterday and pulled a blank canvas from the closet, painted a backdrop of grass and sky and then added a tree with bare branches, courtesy my mad skills from painting class.

Then we went out for Chinese.

After we got back, I put a variety of colors on a plate and let the kids use their finger prints to add apples and flowers and leaves.

I wish I'd have taken pictures of the process but I was busy keeping paint covered fingers in appropriate locations. If you look carefully, you'll see their initials in red on the tree - an E, a J, and a G. Some of the blossoms and apples ended up in unusual places on the canvas, but when we stepped back, we loved the way it turned out.

I think Gran will too.