A Baby Footprint You Never Forget

What most new parents don’t realize is that the nurses will gladly make extras for you if you need them. For example, if the baby book you’re using has a page for the footprints or handprints, most nurses will be glad to go ahead and do those for you at the same time.

Note: baby handprints are much harder to do than footprints, because newborns tend to keep their hands tightly curled into a fist all the time. You can always get prints of baby’s hands a few weeks later, though.

Baby footprints make great gifts for the grandparents. You can either do ink versions (like the hospital does), or more prominent clay versions.

You can buy kits that include the clay needed and a frame for the footprint once it is set. This is a very tangible way to remember how tiny your baby was at birth. Photographs don’t always do it justice.

Some ideas for using your baby’s ink footprint - tablecloth, apron, name cards or invitations (for a birthday party or baby shower), and shirts. When inking clothing, make sure to dry iron the footprint after it dries so it will set in.

You don’t have to go around stamping everything with your baby’s foot, though. Once you get one good print, you can scan or copy it onto anything you want. You can also change the ink color this way.

Clay Footprints

The kits for making clay footprints are quite simple:

• The clay needs to be rolled into the desired shape (oval, square, or rectangle - whatever works best for framing or hanging) until it is about ½ inch thickness.

• Gently press your baby’s clean foot into the center of the clay. Make sure that the entire foot is pressed, otherwise you’ll only get a heel and toe imprint.

• Clean the baby’s foot carefully after this so that no bits of clay remain. You don’t want baby to put anything in her mouth that could be harmful.

• The clay must then be baked until hard (approximately 30 minutes at 250 degrees).

• If you are hanging the footprint without a frame, be sure to poke a hole in the top of the clay before baking.

• Then you can thread some ribbon through the hole to hang the footprint after it has cooled completely.

Since babies are not known to always be cooperative, it might be a good idea to have an extra kit or two as “back-up” in case something goes wrong. If they go well, then you’ll have extras to use as gifts.

Baby footprints and handprints are great gift ideas even for toddlers and pre-schoolers to give Grandma and Grandpa. Also, if you make more than one a few months or a year appart, you get to see how much baby has grown!

You can have fun with different colors and be creativity. You could try cutting some of the baby footprints out of foam and make Christmas ornaments out of them.

Whatever you decide to do, this will be something your family will treasure forever.

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