The QUINNtessential Mommy: Thanksgiving Craft

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm so excited! It's our first holiday in our new house and we're hosting. I can't wait to make the mother of all meals in my brand new kitchen. (I know, I know, I still haven't posted the pictures of the remodel. I'll get there...I promise. First let me just feed 15 adult members of my family and 4 children.)

After a day of cleaning and prepping the house, I pulled out the art supplies and Gia and I did a quick Thanksgiving craft. I was reminded of this no-so-original, yet adorably cute idea on Pinterest and thought Gia is at the perfect age to do it.

We made hand print Turkeys to use as place cards tomorrow.

I was a little worried that it might not work out so well because Gia typically hates to get her hands dirty (kinda like her mommy). So, I told her what we were doing a few days ago and she warmed up to the idea. We got through ten hand prints before she said "Wipe my hand off Mommy!" She took a little break to paint by herself (using her paintbrush) and then we cajoled her into finishing up the last 5 place cards.

So here's the step by step:

1. First I cut pieces of construction paper in half and then folded the halves in half. I stacked all the little cards so they were ready to go once Gia's hand was painted.

2. I painted her entire hand brown.

3. I gently pushed her hand down onto the cards and then peeled the paper off her hand very carefully.

4. While she was taking a break from the strenuous hand printing, I painted black eyes, yellow beaks, red wobbly necks and little legs onto the thumb print part of the turkey.

5. Lastly, after everything was dry, I wrote names on each place card. Some of the hand prints are a bit crooked, so I had to get creative to fit the names on the cards. But, ya know what? It adds character.