Keepsake Craft: Hand Magnets

Make useful keepsake magnets from your children's hands with these simple instructions.

For this project you'll need sheets of magnets. You can find magnetic sheets in the craft area of your local discount store. You could also reuse the larger advertising magnets that you often receive at local fairs in your community. This project is a great opportunity to make use of those advertising magnets for businesses that have changed their phone numbers or gone out of business all together.

Next you'll need a piece of contact paper as large as your child's hand. Contact paper is shelf paper with adhesive backing on it. For this project we'll be working on the front of the contact paper. Simply press your child's hand down flat and trace around it with a pencil to give you a line to cut on.

If your children are very young, you might want to trace their hands while they are sleeping, or at least sleepy. Very young children have a tendency to curl their hands up; but when they're sleeping or drowsy, they will relax their hands and make them much easier to trace around.

Once you have the handprint traced onto the contact paper, carefully cut it out with scissors and then peel away the release paper from the back of the contact paper. With the adhesive side down, lay your hand print onto your sheet of magnet and smooth it down so that it adheres well.

Now cut around your handprint to remove any excess of the sheet magnet. You should end up with a magnet in the shape of your hand cutout with the contact paper completely covering the top of it. Be sure to set aside any of the larger magnet scraps; they're great for all kinds of craft projects.

You can stop here and have a nice magnet in the shape of your child's hand or you can add to it. You can glue a picture of your child into the palm of your handprint, and you can use craft pens to add additional decorations or to add your child's name or the date to your handprint magnet.

This is a great project to do every year with your children so that you get an opportunity to see their hands (and photographs, if you use them), grow up over the years.

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