Make These Adorable Handprint Placemats for Canada Day

Kids can make Canada flags using their hand and finger prints

When my daughter was just a few weeks old, I carefully placed her pudgy hand in a puddle of paint before smushing it gently onto a piece of paper. I planned to do the same thing, year after year, until she turned eighteen. But that - along with my goal of yearly photo books - went right out the window somewhere around year two.

Still, I love handprint crafts because they - like my first clumsy attempt - serve as a permanent record of just how small my daughter once was.

This Canada Day, why not make a Canadian flag using your child’s handprints? Better yet, wrangle the entire family and have each member make a flag – or two – in different sizes. And when you’re done, you can take the pictures to your neighbourhood stationary store and have them laminated so you can use them as placemats and coasters for Canada Day barbeques - this year and for years to come.

HANDPRINT CANADA FLAG PLACEMATS & COASTERS

To begin, you will need: some white paper (we cut 10” x 15” pieces of poster board for placemats and 4” x 4” pieces of poster board for coasters), red paint (we used tempera), a couple of paintbrushes, newspaper, lots of paper towels and a hand.

Gather your supplies to make handprint Canada flags.

First, have your child paint two red stripes at the edge of the paper. Or, invite them to use their fingertips to fill in the spaces. My daughter chose the paintbrush.

Paint the edges of the paper to look like a Canadian flag.

Paint the edges of the paper to make it look like a Canadian flag.

Encourage your kiddo to dip the palm of one hand in red paint. Or, have them use a paintbrush to coat their hand instead.

Paint your child's hand red.

The first handprint goes onto the middle of the paper – straight up and down.

Place the hand on the paper - painted side down.

Place a handprint on the middle of the paper.

You now have what looks like it might be a Canadian flag and so, you could leave the picture as is, or you can add more handprints.

After your kiddo gets more paint on his/her hand, turn the paper and have them place the next handprint facing right.

Place the next handprint facing right.

Continue with another handprint facing left and add a small line at the bottom of the prints, until you have what looks like this...

Handprint Canada flag.

Meanwhile, your child can use the smaller pieces of paper to make coasters. The process is the same except instead of using handprints to create a maple leaf, your kids can use fingerprints. Dab, dab, dab.

Make small fingerprint Canada flag coasters.