Here are some brilliant ideas from Cathy for keepsake crafts to do with your little ones this Christmas.

I’m a huge fan of children’s paintings, especially ones made using their handprints as I think they capture a little of the essence of the child. Christmas provides the perfect excuse for some handprint art, as you can use them to make unique cards and decorations to share with your family. Here are three ideas you can try this Christmas to make an heirloom artwork, however young your child.

Just before you let your baby loose with the paint though, you’d be wise to practise a little damage limitation.

• Supervise your baby very carefully when using paint, as you know they’ll be tempted to put it in their mouth.
• Tailor the craft to suit them. Some children dislike the feeling or appearance of paint on their hands, in which case you could let them make marks with a paint brush instead. You’ll still be capturing some of their art, whichever method you use.
• Let your child decide how long they want to paint for and stop when they’ve had enough. You can always scan their handprint and make copies if you want to produce enough cards for all the family.
• Cover up – your baby, the floor and table top, and you! Then you can relax and not be too worried about a little mess.
• Choose a good location. I find using a highchair with paper stuck down on the tray with Bluetac works really well: baby is comfortable but contained!

Designs to try

For a baby, try some free style finger painting. If you use some green paint you can encourage them to bang away and dab the paint on the paper any way they like. Then all you need to do is cut out their artwork into a spiky leaf shape and add two red finger print berries to make a festive holly design.

If you’re feeling more adventurous you can try some hand and foot prints. A dark brown footprint with two light brown handprint antlers on top, with the fingers pointing outwards, makes a surprisingly convincing reindeer face. Use fingerprints to make two black eyes and a red nose, and you have Rudolph.

If you’re crafting with a pre-schooler try this angel design. Make a gold triangle for the dress, spread it with glue and sprinkle on some glitter. Use a circle for the head and let your child draw on a face. Two golden handprints for wings and a flourish of tinsel for a halo, and she’s all done.

You can leave the designs as they are and hang them up as decorations, or turn them into cards. As an alternative, you can punch a hole in the top and add some ribbon to make a decoration to hang on your tree. How about starting a family tradition of making a handprint craft each year, to record how your child grows?

Whichever design you use, you’ll have a unique Christmas heirloom and a record of how tiny those little hands once were.

Share your Christmas Craft ideas with Cathy and we’ll choose one person to win a BornFree drinking Cup on Tuesday 7th December.

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