Ceramic Plate Ideas for Kids' Hands

Butterfly

• Create a handprint butterfly in the center of the plate and line the edges of the plate with fingertip flowers. Paint the butterfly's head and body horizontally in the center of the plate and stamp two sets of painted handprints on each side of the body as the butterfly's wings. Hold the child's hands with the fingers pointing away from the butterfly's body. Hold the thumbs pointing up for the top set of wings, and down for the bottom set of wings. You can also paint the body horizontally across the plate and stamp two handprints on top of the body for a side-view of the butterfly. You can create any type of winged animal in this way including bumblebees, birds and bats. Create fingertip flowers with a single fingerprint in one color surrounded by fingertip petals of a second color.

Tulips

• Begin a handprint tulip with a painted handprint in the center of the plate. Have the child hold her fingers tightly together while pressing her hand to the ceramic plate. If the child's hands are small, create several handprint tulip bulbs. Add a stripe extending from the bottom of the handprint to the bottom of the plate to create the stem of the tulip. Decorate the remainder of the plate with a grassy border, or add gems or stickers to complete the design.

Fall Tree

• The fall tree, sometimes called a thankful tree, is a craft with a lesson about having a thankful heart. Stamp a brown handprint in the center of the plate with the fingers spread wide apart. Include the child's forearm in the stamp to create a trunk for the tree. Clean the brown paint off the child's hand, then have the child create multi-colored fingerprint leaves around the fingers of the tree. Ask the child to think of something he is thankful for to correspond to each fingerprint leaf.

Reindeer

• The handprint reindeer is a traditional craft that you can use each year in your holiday celebrations. The original handprint reindeer, as seen on the DLTK website, involves drawing or painting the reindeer's face in the center of the plate and stamping two handprints at the top of its head as the horns. The handprints connect to the reindeer's head at the thumbs. Instead of simply painting the reindeer's face free-hand, you can use the child's foot to create a face. The child's heel is the top of the reindeer's head and ball of the foot becomes the reindeer's mouth. Do not add paint to the child's toes when making the footprint. After the paint dries, add features to the reindeer's face with additional paint or glued accessories.