Christmas: Footprint Penguins

Happy Holidays, Design Dazzle readers!  I'm Laura, from Come Together Kids and I'm thrilled to be here sharing a way my kids and I came together to make an adorable (and meaningful) gift for the grandparents.

How cute is this group of penguins in their little hats and scarves?  Doesn't the shape of their bodies look familiar?  That's right, they're footprints!  I made this adorable canvas wall hanging for the grandparents last year using the footprints of all the grandchildren.

The project was pretty inexpensive and not too difficult to make at all, but even more importantly, the grandparents loved it! 

Here's what you'll need:

• plain artist's canvas ( I had a lot of footprints, so I used a 12" x 24" one)


• two pieces of blue cotton fabric for the background (mine had small prints that somewhat resembled the snow and sky)


• black cotton fabric for the footprints (mine had a subtle dot pattern)


• scraps of fleece or felt for the penguin accessories


• Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive 


• acrylic paint for the eyes
  
  


• snowflake buttons (optional)


• iron and hot glue gun

Here's what to do:

1.  Iron the Heat'n Bond to the wrong side of the blue fabrics.  Overlap the two fabrics slightly to form the "ground" and the "sky".  (I cut a slightly wavy line where the two colors met.)  Cut your fabric a few inches larger than the size of your canvas.  Peel off the paper backing and iron your pieces directly to the front of the canvas.  Wrap the excess fabric around the sides to the back and hot glue in place.

2.  Next, iron the Heat'n Bond to the wrong side of the black fabric. Then trace the child's footprint onto the paper-y side.  Cut out the footprints.  (For an example of how this is done, see a similar post I did with Footprint Butterflies).  Peel off the paper backing again, position your footprints where you want them on the canvas and iron them in place.

3.  Now you'll want to add your penguins' clothing!  I simply cut out pieces of leftover fleece to make little hats and scarves and hot glued them in place.  Then I cut ovals out of white fleece and hot glued them on to form the penguins bellies.

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4.  Finally, use a bit of acrylic paint to paint on your penguins' eyes  (I initially planned on using googly eyes, but I liked the look of the painted eyes much better!) and add little triangle noses ( I just glue on a small triangle of orange paper)  I also added a few snowflake buttons in the "sky".

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5.  That's it!  Whether you're making just one penguin or a whole waddle (yes, I looked up the term for a group of penguins!), this is a really cute way to use footprints to create some winter art.

I hope you enjoyed our little project.  I really believe it's simple and heartfelt gifts like this Footprint Penguin canvas that truly make Christmas Wonderful!