Father’s Day Craft:

This is very simple, all you need is:

A piece of watercolor paper, watercolor paints, a dark marker, the kids, and this poem:

Footprints

“Walk a little slower daddy,” said a child so small.

I’m following in your footsteps and I don’t want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,

Sometimes they’re hard to see,

So walk a little slower, daddy,

For, you are leading me.

Someday when I’m all grownup,

You’re what I want to be;

Then I will have a little child

Who’ll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,

And know that I was true;

So, walk a little slower,

Daddy,

For I Must Follow You.

-Author Unkown

Its very simple and you can get really creative with it! Just paint the kids feet, have them step on your paper, allow it to dry, add the poem, and voila, a keepsake!

If you need a little more guidance or more in-depth ideas to spin that creative web, here is what I did:

I used:

12 x 16” Watercolor Paper from a pad I had lying around,

A Black Sharpie Marker

Watercolor Paints

Old Sponges

Paint Brushes

We picked pinks and blues to be our predominant colors. Each child grabbed a paintbrush or a sponge and brushed on their pastel shades of pink, and purple for the background. Watercolors are wonderfully forgiving, and a little extra water or paint applied with a brush or sponge blends the colors into a very nice background.

We did this project outside, on a nice warm day, and our background colors were dry in just a few minutes, but you can do this over a couple days if you like. Just make sure the background is dry before moving on.

We then picked 2 dark, complimentary colors for the kids to make their footprints with. We picked red and blue. I painted the bottom of the kid’s feet (lots of giggly fun here!) one by one and they stepped onto the paper. I did 2 footprints on each side of the paper to leave room for my poem in the middle. Again, you need to allow time for the footprints to dry.

By this time, my kids were all crafted out (they’re still young). But this was a perfect time for a snack, while I drafted out the poem. I drafted the poem in pencil, then wrote over the pencil with my permanent marker. To give the poem some substance, I took a light bluish-purple mix and sponge-painted over the words of the poem. I then wrote with a fine paint brush the title “Footprints” in the same blue, using less water on my brush to get a darker shade of blue.

This was last year’s Father’s Day gift, so this year we’re going to surprise him by framing it for his office this year.

Jean Sinatra