Easy Handprint Art Ideas for Kids - Hands-On Teaching Ideas

My kids love creating art. They love drawing, painting, and playing around with different art mediums. I also love when they create handprint art because it makes a wonderful keepsake.

As a teacher, I am always looking for different art activities that all children can be successful with and also ones that allow each child the opportunity to create a unique piece of art. This handprint art does both of these things.

I often try out my arts and crafts ideas on my own children before taking it into the classroom. This activity, however, was inspired by my kids. They had asked me to trace their hand and my daughter noticed that her handprint looked like flowers in a vase.

We then had a great conversation about all of the different things the hand and fingers looked like or resembled.

We turned the handprint upside down and to the side and looked at it from lots of different angles and had some fun saying what we saw.

This handprint art is a very simple idea, but you may be amazed by the creativity in a child as they create their handprint art. It is also amazing to see the art that can be created with just a piece of paper, markers and simple materials.

If you’re looking for even more crafts that you can do with just paper, visit 71 Easy Paper Crafts and Activities.

handprint art shows a collage of handprint art on a pinterest pin.

Materials for Handprint Art

Another great thing about this handprint art activity for kids is it is inexpensive and all that all you need is paper and something to colour with. As a teacher, I did this activity with many children, inexpensive is always good.

If you want to get a little bit more complicated, or if older children are creating their handprint art, I have included a few ideas to make the art a bit more challenging.

Paper
Pencil, Markers, Pencil Crayons, Crayons or Even Paint (Use whatever you have on hand).
Glue (Optional)
Construction Paper (Optional)
Scissors (Optional)

handprint art shows rainbow order of markers.

How to Create Handprint Art

Start by having a child lay their hand flat on a sheet of paper. Trace around their fingers. You can trace some of their arm as well depending of what they want their picture to become.

art ideas shows a child holding their hand to a white page and a pencil beside them.

Pencil is best to use so that the outline can be erased if needed.

If the child knows what they want to turn their handprint into, then make sure they place their hands in the proper way.

My daughter wanted to create a “Thumbs Up” handprint art, and she made sure to trace her thumb sticking out to the side, instead of up.

handprint art shows a cut out hand print on a sign that says thumbs up.

Once the handprint has been traced, the child can begin creating!

There are lots of things that you can turn your handprint into. I have shown some of the ideas that my children came up with to inspire you, but talking to kids about what they see in their handprint and giving them the chance to create whatever they want, is ideal.

Flower Vase Handprint Art

handprint art shows a hand print to look like a vase.

We used this handprint flower vase as a gift for my kids grandmother for Mother’s Day. The fact it includes their handprints makes it even better.

They spread their fingers out to look like the stems of flowers and then drew in colourful flowers over where their nails would be. My oldest child added a line behind her fingers and in front to complete her vase.

I love the different colours that my kids used when creating their handprint vase. Any art with my kid’s handprints on it is always a favourite of mine.

They added a very sweet poem and their card was ready! I know that their grandmother loved it!

I may try out this art in the classroom for a special occasion. It is easy, inexpensive and can be made more challenging depending on the age of the child.

Tree Handprint Art Ideas

handprint art shows a handprint that has been colored brown and a child coloring with different shades of green markers.

One of my favourite things that we turned our handprint art into was a tree. It seems simple, but the end results are beautiful.

After you have your handprint traced, the fingers become branches and your arm becomes the tree trunk. The possibilities are endless for what the leaves become.

arts and crafts for kids shows a tree that has been traced and colored brown.

We created another tree handprint art by adding a rainbow of leaves. I love the result of these colours.

Once we were done colouring, we cut out the handprint. Next, we glued the page onto a brown sheet of paper for the brown to show through and create the tree trunk and branches.

handprint art shows a handprint traced and colored dots around it as leaves.

I would love to do this handprint art with my class at school. I love the colours – it looks beautiful enough to hang on a wall.

handprint art shows a brown hand print to look like a tree and the leaves are all colored dots around.

Coral Handprint Art Ideas

This piece of coral is an interesting type of handprint art where the handprint blends into the background. The handprint becomes a piece of coral in the ocean.

handprint art shows a colored and cut out handprint.

After colouring the handprint, we cut it out and glued it to a blue background. Some children even choose to create 3-4 pieces of coral and they created a whole ocean scene.

handprint art ideas shows coral made from a hand print and then fish.

You can add extra details, like our colourful fish, to your handprint art scene with coral. You could even trace a finger for the body of the fish.

Any handprint can be cut out and added to a new background to create a new scene.

Peacock Handprint

handprint art shows a peacock looking handprint art.

How adorable is this peacock? After tracing the child’s hand, colour the fingers to look like peacock feathers.

You can add a blue body by cutting one out of construction paper and then gluing it on, or just colour the body in where the palm of the hand was traced. We added details just for fun.

One great thing about this handprint art is that it can be done almost anywhere. My kids ended up creating a bunch of designs during a car ride. All we had were sheets of paper and markers, but that was all we needed!

I hope that you get a chance to create some handprint art. It is a very simple idea, but it is unique to each child and even young children will be successful with this activity.

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