Hand print reindeer foam frame

Here is the final product:I saw a version of this a while back (can’t remember where, sorry) where they used a real wooden frame (Ikea or Michaels inexpensive little wooden ones) painted it and used a red pompom for the nose and they didn’t have the little Santa hat. Makes a great gift for anyone.

This is my spin on it, I have to send mine to the in-laws (the rest of the family as well) in Germany and in the US, so a real frame was a big no no. So I thought about craft foam sheets, pompom would be a flatness issue for the envelope so I went with foam again.

We did our prints on a big white cardboard from the dollar store. I used regular brown craft acrylic paint also from the dollar store. I washes off his hands well (baby wipes are great for that). Can’t say for the clothes as we didn’t get any on.

I “fixed” the hands where paint was missing too much with a little paint and a q-tip, cut them and used Mod Podge on them so he could lightly (I did manage to keep it under control this time) sprinkle red glitter on it. After it was dried I put 2 more layers of Mod Podge on it again to avoid losing the glitter.

I cut rectangles in the brown foam sheets, 4 per page (I’m making 10 frames). I didn’t really like the look (too straight and boxy) so I free handed to cut off the corners and makw it look more like a reindeer head.

After gluing the “woods” I noticed that the frame got pretty flimsy, so I cut 2 crafts sticks (1 per side) and use a tiny one for the bottom and created support and a way to make sure the photo is easy to slide in.

I also cut a backing to fit part of the frame (about 3/4 of the height) to glue back there and hide the sticks. After I had taken the photo, I also hot-glued magnets in the back by using old company magnets you get (pizza place, pharmacy etc.), so it could be stuck to a fridge, for example.

I then cut the noses to fit the bottom of the frame. I already had googly eyes that were the right size. I had Nico glue those on the glue spots I put on.

Then I looked at it and thought something was missing, that’s why there is a little Santa hat. I pre-cutted the pieces and had Nico glue them with my help of course for the glue once again. He loved doing all the gluing and drinking juice at the same time (mister multitask). I glued the hats on the frames.

Still something was missing, it wasn’t Nico enough… One night after he was in bed I looked at those frames again and it came to me… GLITTER! So the next morning I gave him the glitter glue tubes and after some very focused squeezing, voilà they were now his frames

Here is a quick pattern I made of it just by tracing what I had cut already. I had eyeballed everything I did.

If you do this, we’d LOVE to see a photo of it. Email it to us or post it on our Facebook page. We’d love to do a Facebook album, a Pinterest board and a page of your creations

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