Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Craft for Kids

At the very top of my THANKFUL list is my children!

A fun holiday craft and Thanksgiving decor to display & cherish year after year is this EASY TURKEY HANDPRINT!

What You Need to Make These Thanksgiving Turkey Handprints

● Heavy duty white paper plate

● washable paint in: brown, yellow, orange, red & burgundy (or whatever colors you want your turkey to be)

● An orange marker

● A black or brown pen

● Felt scraps in fall colors (I used red, orange, yellow, green & brown)

○ feathers from the craft store would be an awesome adaptation!

● Elmer’s glue

For my toddler (picture below), I painted her palm and thumb brown. Each of her other four fingers were painted a different color. Then I helped her carefully make a hand print in the middle of the plate. As that dried, I let her pick out felt scraps while I put a ring of Elmer’s glue around the edge of the plate. The finishing touches were added as she stuck her felt squares on and I added the text “Happy Thanksgiving Hazel 2011”, beak, beard & feet.

For my infant (picture above), I painted her palm and thumb brown while her fingers were all the same color. Because her handprint wasn’t as “tidy” I traced the outline with a black pen before embellishing the turkey. She had absolutely no interest in trimming her plate, so I went ahead and did that in my own OCD fashion. :)

Thanksgiving Turkey Hand Print Craft Adaptation for Babies

Also, here’s a Thanksgiving handprint project from a while ago that’s an adaptation for older children.

What are you most thankful for this year?

Add a touch of fall with this simple autumn leaf garland.

All of the credit for this autumn garland idea goes to Elise at A Beautiful Mess Blog.  As a  writer, I had to find just the right word to describe it after I fell in love with a picture of the garland she made.  I was trying to combine “beautiful” and “whimsical,” and that just didn’t quite sum it up for me.  Finally, the perfect word came to me:  ”charming.”  This craft is so charming!

What you need to make an autumn leaf garland (sorry, I don’t have a picture of all the craft supplies for this one):

• Felt in various autumn colors
• Yarn
• Needle
• Optional – use our printable leaf pattern stencils

I cut out a cardstock template so my leaves would all match.

Cut out your felt leaves.

String the felt leaves onto your yarn making sure that your stitches are somewhat even.

Decorate for fall with your autumn leaf garland!

Related Page: Leaf Templates

Thanksgiving Turkey Template	Thanksgiving Mayflower Template	Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat Template
Thanksgiving Cornucopia Template	Fall Acorn Template	Fall Harvest Corn Template
Fall Wheat Grain Sheaf Template	Fall Leaves Template	Fall Pumpkin Template

Construction paper and pipe cleaners are about all you need for this paper pumpkin craft.

We’ve really gotten into decorating for both Halloween and autumn around here.  The dining room as a definite silly/spooky Halloween vibe, while the living room has more of a sophisticated “harvest” theme.  Just because it’s more grown up doesn’t mean there aren’t any kid crafts in there, with these simple pumpkins being a great example.

What you need to make paper strip pumpkins:

• Orange construction paper
• Scrap of green construction paper
• Green pipe cleaner
• Scissors
• Tape
• Stapler

Most of these craft supplies are right on hand!

Cut your paper lengthwise into strips. The width is up to you. We did 11 strips for our each pumpkin.

Fan the strips out and staple them at the gathering point. Then tape the two fans together.

Cut out a leaf and hole punch it at the bottom.

Hole punch each strip on the non-attached end. Bring them all together at the top and feed a green pipe cleaner through them and the leaf before twisting it to hold everything in place. Curl the pipe cleaner around your finger or a pen to look like pumpkin vines.

Use your paper pumpkins to add color and fun to your Halloween or harvest decorations.

You may notice a couple of our other autumn crafts in this picture, like the autumn leaf garland and paper bag pumpkin!

So I got a little nostalgic making these Thanksgiving masks today – sometimes that dang universe sure leads us to exactly where we need to be, don’t you think?

Paper Masks for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Turkey Mask	Thanksgiving Mask - Native American
Thanksgiving Mask - Pilgrim Woman	Thanksgiving Mask - Pilgrim Man

I sure have a lot more Thanksgiving content this year compared to last year, so check out the Thanksgiving activities from all Woo! Jr. Network sites!

Kids Thanksgiving Turkey Crafts

Turkey Finger Puppet Craft	Gratitude Turkey Thanksgiving Craft	Printable Turkey Masks	Turkey Pinecone Craft for Kids
Turkey Handprint Paper Plate Craft	Recycled Cardboard Thanksgiving Card	Turkey Hat Paper Craft	Painted Turkey Keepsake Plates
Fall Leaves Thanksgiving Craft	Thanksgiving Turkey Paper Sculpture	Printable Turkey Paper Craft	Tin Can Felt Turkey Craft
Thanksgiving Turkey Cake Pops	Thanksgiving Seashell Crafts	Polymer Clay Turkey Figurine	Thanksgiving Cardboard Turkey Craft

Be sure to check out more Thanksgiving kids crafts on Craft Jr.!

I’ve tried to find Cricut craft projects that don’t require a big investment in more cartridges, though some do, of course. Several of them offer free template downloads or instructions on how to create the projects on your own. Also, some of these patterns are just as easily made on other paper cutting craft tools, such as the Gypsy and Cuttlebug.

Related Page: Printable Box Templates

Cricut Paper Crafts

Cricut Paper Purse	Cricut Robot Papercraft	Pretty Cricut Cupcake Wrappers	Cricut Paper Flowers Craft

Halloween Cricut Crafts

Cricut Halloween Decorations	Cricut Paper Pumpkins	Decorated Halloween Candles	Halloween Door Hangers

Thanksgiving Cricut Crafts

Cricut Thanksgiving Turkey Craft	Cricut Thanksgiving Pie Favor Boxes	Cricut Thanksgiving Place Cards	Thanksgiving Paper Banners

Christmas Cricut Crafts

Paper Cutting Christmas Ornaments	Cricut Glitter Snowflakes	Christmas Mouse Candy Cane Holders	Cricut Paper Christmas Scene

Valentines Day Cricut Crafts

Cricut Valentine Treat Bag Toppers	Cricut Strawberry Valentine Treats	Cricut Valentine Cards	Cricut Valentines Day Banner

Easter Cricut Crafts

Cricut Spring Flower Easter Treats	Cricut Easter Bunny Basket	Cricut Easter Egg Holder	Cricut Easter Place Cards

Normally my crafts are much less involved, but I used to do a LOT of mosaic when I crafted for a living, and I really miss it. This does take several days to complete because of the drying time involved with adhesive, grout and polyurethane. But the whole family helped with this project, so it will be an extra special present that was totally worth the time we spent on it!

Thanksgiving Turkey Mosaic Platter

What You Need to Make This Thanksgiving Mosaic Platter Project

Thanksgiving Mosaic Craft Materials

Everything I needed for this platter I got at my local craft store:

Small unfinished wooden tray

Craft paint (I used brown and red)

Glass mosaic tiles – 3/8 inch in 7 colors. I bought mine in two fall color assortment packages – Red, yellow, orange in one, & off white, tan, brown and reddish brown in another.

In addition to what is pictured above, you will also need:

Sanded tile grout - off white.

Water based polyurethane (my preference because it doesn’t smell at all and is super-easy to clean up).

E6000 glass glue - perfect for adhering glass to wood.

Beads for the beak and eye, or you can use pliers made for glass cutting to shape these pieces.

Sandpaper

How to Make this Keepsake Thanksgiving Platter

Plan Your Thanksgiving Mosaic Pattern

“Stain” Your Wood and Do A Trial Run

First of all, water down some brown paint and use it as a ‘stain’ for the outside edges of the wood platter. When I painted art furniture for a living, I found this method to be WAY easier than messing around with oil based stains, and gave nearly identical results.

After the paint has dried (which will take less than an hour), sand the wood to remove all rough edges. You can do this before you paint, but I wanted a weathered look, so I sanded after I painted.

Then start arranging your tiles on the platter to get an idea of where you will want to place them with the glue. I highly recommend this trial run, because trying to ‘draw’ with glass squares is a little challenging, especially around curves. I also discovered that I had started my design too far from the bottom edge, so when I glued the tiles, I knew to start much further down.

Glue the Mosaic Tiles in Place

Turkey Mosaic - Glue the Glass Tiles to the Platter

E6000 is both a tricky and forgiving glue to work with. Tricky because it is not so easy to spread and dries kind of fast. Forgiving because even though it dries fast, it doesn’t dry all the way for a longer period of time, which means you can make minor adjustments in tile positions if you need to.

The way I found worked best was to spread the glue in the shape of an area I wanted to cover – such as the turkey neck, then body, then half of the feather area, etc. Then press your tiles (grooved side down!) into the glue. Once the tile has been on the glue for a few minutes, try not to pull it up again. But you can move it slightly from side to side if you find you need to make adjustments for fitting pieces into your design.

Since I didn’t want to cut the tiles (too sharp for little hands to help), I used a few beads I had on hand to make the beak and eye. If you want to cut tiles for a more precise fit, use pliers specifically made for glass cutting. Really – trust me on this, don’t use anything else to cut glass tiles. It will save you hours of frustration and wasted broken tile pieces (and probably sliced fingers. Yes, I speak from experience).

If you were tiling a floor, you would have to make sure that your grout lines were always a certain width, but for a craft project, you have way more leeway. Just make sure that no spot is big enough for another tile to fit there. You can see I have a few awkward gaps in some places, but I love the look of handmade stuff, so I purposefully didn’t let myself get perfectionistic about placing the tiles into the design.

Allow Your Mosaic to Dry

My kids loved helping me with this part, and even fought over turns. We’ll probably have to do more mosaic soon!

Once your tiles are in place, allow the platter to dry for at least 24 hours.

Grout The Mosaic

Important - before you grout, tape off the wood around the perimiter of the tiles (like you would if you were painting). The grout sticks to raw wood (unfortunately very well), and makes for a real mess you would have to sand off later. I used clear tape that you can’t see in these pictures.

Grouting the Glass Tiles

I bought my grout at Home Depot, just using the smallest container they had of pre-mixed grout. I always hated mixing grout myself. I used an old kitchen spatula to spread the grout between the tiles. Be sure to press the grout down in between the tiles and spread it around as you smooth it in all directions. Sometimes the grout looks like it is everywhere when it really isn’t, so it’s very important to spread in all directions to get it down into all the various spaces between the tiles. The kids helped with this too, just make sure they either wear gloves or don’t get it on their skin.

For grouting around the beads, make sure you uncover them enough to see them. My beads were not as tall as the tiles, so there is a slight indentation there.

When you’re done, scrape off as much excess grout as possible. It should look somewhat like this – don’t worry about the haze:

Mosaic Thanksgiving Platter - Grout Completed

Let the grout dry for at least an hour or 90 minutes. Then use a wet sponge or paper towel to removed the grout haze. It comes off quite easily now.

Let the grout cure for an additional 24-48 hours, according to the label directions.

Final Step – Protect with Polyurethane

You have to seal and protect the platter so that you can clean it later after use. I hate the fumes and cleanup of normal polyurethane, so I use a water-based polyurethane if possible. I wouldn’t use it on hardwood floors or furniture, but it’s perfect for craft projects. Be sure to cover both the top, tiles and bottom of the platter. Put on two coats and let dry between coats according to product instructions. Sand lightly between the coats, too. I know it’s a PITA, but it makes sure the second coat adheres to the first coat, especially if you are using a gloss finish like I did.

Thanksgiving Platter - Mosaic Pattern

Here’s the finished product with a top view so that you can use it as a pattern template!

Last weekend we finished up our keepsake Thanksgiving plates. I’ll be using these every year until I’m old and gray, I tell you!

Thanksgiving Keepsake Plate Craft

These turkey handprints are surprisingly easy to make, you just need a few special materials found at any craft store:

What You Need to Make Thanksgiving Handprint Keepsake Plates

Thanksgiving Keepsake Handprints - Craft Materials

Plain white plates – I got mine at my local dollar store – cheap, cheap, cheap!

Folk Art Enamel paints – these are baked onto the plate surface after the painting is done, so be sure to get the Enamels. They don’t come in a huge number of colors, so you will be mixing colors from red, green, yellow and brown paints. I also used black paint for the eyes, but you can use one of your existing colors for that tiny dot, too.

Paint brushes

Keepsake Thanksgiving Plate

Wash and dry the plates, and get a paper plate ready to use for mixing your paint colors. There’s no exact science to it, I just created different shades of red and orange out of the brown, red and yellow paints. When trying to mix lighter colors, use only a very little bit of the darker color and mix more if necessary. These pigments are pretty saturated and light colors are easily overpowered.

For the above design, I used:

Straight brown for the palm and thumb

Straight red for one finger

Light orange (yellow plus a little red) for another finger

Dark red (red and brown) for another finger

Darker red (red brown and a drop or two of green) for the last finger

You can mix it up and also use straight green like my son did for one of his fingers.

Plate Painting Instructions

If they mess up, don’t worry, just wash the paint off while it is still wet and start over!

Working fairly quickly (because the paint can dry out fast), paint the colors onto your child’s hand. Be generous with the paint, but you don’t want globs of it coming off onto the surface. Help your child hold their fingers apart and center it over the plate, then guide it down in position and have them press their handprint for a few seconds. After they lift their hands, they may need to press again to ensure the full handprint makes it onto the plate. Because the finger impressions didn’t end up touching the palm impression, I went back in with some brown paint and filled in the parts of their hands that didn’t come in contact with the plate.

If you end up with thick globs of paint, take off the excess with a paint brush, because baking globs of the enamel paint doesn’t turn out well at all.

After your kids have washed their hands, have them come back with a small paint brush and add the eye, beak and red turkey waddle underneath the chin.

For the outside rim decorations, I gave each of them only a little guidance. I was really pleased to see all of them come up with interesting designs that complimented each other yet were very much a reflection of their personalities.

After they were all done, I took a tiny bit of black paint and added “2009″ to the bottom corner of their handprints. Then I painted their initials onto each plate .

Bake according to the directions on the Enamel paints.

While these plates can’t be used for eating, they can dress up your walls, decorate your Thanksgiving table, be excellent hostess gifts for Grandma, or be used as charger plates for smaller see through plates!