Newborn Keepsake Ideas

When you have a baby all everyone tells you is to cherish them when they’re small because they won’t be little forever. I love capturing moments and collecting memories so I knew I wanted to do something to remember how little JJ was when he was a newborn. What better way to remember how tiny my little dude was than to stamp his handprints and footprints on a canvas?!

We did a few different versions of these prints. At the hospital, we stamped his foot on a baseball and used that in his newborn pictures with his measurements. The ink was very wet, make sure to dab a little off with a napkin before stamping the baseball or the ink will rub off. I also lightly wrapped the napkin over the print on the baseball to absorb some of the extra ink. Another little tip, stick pens like this work best to write on baseballs and make sure to write in the “sweet spot.”

Don’t forget to grab a baseball holder to display your little one’s footprint.

Once we got home from the hospital and got settled in we decided to make some canvases for our family to announce JJ’s birth. The canvas prints were a great visual for grandparents and other family members to see and remember just how small our little guy was.

What You Need

• Stamp pad
• Canvases boards
  We bought a variety of small-sized canvases at Dollar Tree but you can also snag some from Amazon or a craft store.
• A full and sleepy/sleeping baby
• Another set of hands (not yours or the baby’s)

The more full and sleepy the baby the easier this will be. Getting footprints isn’t hard at all but the handprints were definitely more difficult. What worked best for us was to have JJ sleeping on Jett’s chest/stomach. I put JJ’s hand on the stamp pad and then brought the canvas to his hand. I also recommend canvas boards over canvas since the hard surface is a little easier to place a squirmy baby’s hand or foot on and properly apply the pressure necessary to transfer the print.

This project is a little messy and the ink doesn’t come off as well as paint so make sure to have a wet wipe handy or a warm, soapy washcloth. Make sure you and baby are wearing dark clothing and you’re doing this craft in a safe space(not near any white table runners or on a white crib sheet etc.).

Babies are very squirmy so you will most likely have some “mess-up” prints. I happily discovered that a damp magic eraser will do the trick to clean up any boo-boos on the canvas boards.

These keepsake prints make a perfect gift for Mother’s or Father’s Day, Grandparents Day or as a birth announcement! It took us a while to make enough canvases for everyone, we stopped and started the project a few times but these little prints are something everyone will cherish for a long time.