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Monday, October 3, 2011

Halloween Footprint Ghosts

This is one of my favorite projects and it was William's first real craft. Here he is with the finished product:


To kick-off our Halloween decor, I decided to make ghosts out of William's footprints. I saw a similar idea in a magazine a while ago, but I made some modifications and made it even easier.

Materials you need:
baby or child
wood
saw
paints: black, white, yellow
paintbrush
Sharpie
numerical stickers

I started off at Lowe's and purchased one piece of wood and cut it at home into a few different size pieces. (I did different sizes because I made these for William's grandparents too, but I used one footprint instead of two.) I also picked up a can of $1 black spray paint. I covered the basement floor in newspaper and gave each piece of wood two coats of spray paint on each side and all edges.




Then, I put William in his highchair and painted the bottom of his bare foot white and stamped it on the wood. Now, the first time I did this, I dipped his foot into the paint and then stood him up on the wood, but this resulted in a messy ghost that wasn't hardly recognizable as a footprint. By painting his foot, I had more control over the amount of paint used and could also spread out his toes if that makes any sense.


While the paint was drying, I added some additional details: a yellow full moon and the year 2011 in 3D white sparkle stickers so I didn't have to worry about neatly painting numbers. Then, I drew faces on each ghost with a Sharpie.



I love how this project came out and want to do it annually. Once William has a sibling, I can use one foot from each of them to have a big ghost and little ghost. One of the best parts is, since it is wood, I don't have to worry about it getting ripped in a box, paper fading, etc. I can just sit it anywhere in our house until Halloween!


9 comments:

Taylor Wise said...

Cute project.... cuter kid!

Unknown said...

That's really cute! I want to give it a try! My six month old should be a breeze...my two year old, on the other hand, I'm not so sure how she will feel about the paint on her feet. Could be a BIG mess, lol! We'll see! Thanks for the project idea!

Maggie Massey said...

Oh, Shannon! These are just adorable! What a fantastic keepsake...and that William of yours is a doll-face. Thank you so so much for linking up to my Everything Halloween party!

Anonymous said...

very cute!!

WhyCuzICan said...

William is lucky to have such a thoughtful mommy who does projects like this!

Happy Halloween season to you, William and your whole family!


Thanks for sharing!!
Visiting from Midwestern Sewing Girl's linky party {Everything Halloween}
~Suzanne in NW Illinois

Maggie Massey said...

Just wanted to let you know that I've featured your Footprint Ghosts on my FB page...yay! They are so wonderful!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Midwestern-Sewing-Girl/148542325218346

Vicky @ Mess For Less said...

I have been wanting to do with with my 3 kids. I was just going to use some paper, but I love what you did! I am a new follower from Handmade Tuesdays. Vicky from www.messforless.net

Shannon said...

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I have already come up with our Thanksgiving project…stay tuned :)

Marilyn said...

This is so unique and awesome..So creative..Im Marilyn and your newest follower..I would LOVE for you to share this at my Pin'Inspirational Thursday creative linky party pweease -- TY .. http://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com/2011/10/pininspirational-thursdays-linky-party.html ..Lovely blog :))