2015 Hand Turkey

Hi there!  Hope your holiday season is off to a relaxing and memorable start.

Quick post to share a picture of this year's hand turkeys.

Cute, huh? ;)

We made these gems at The Art Place Studio right here in Charleston.  It's a fantastic little family business where you can take your kids to paint pre-made pottery or wood pieces, create paintings, or make and paint pottery that they will dry in a kiln.  They host birthday parties as well as BYOW events for adults.  We love the studio.

If don't have a place like The Art Place, you could make something similar with model magic.  Or, if you're into a more traditional hand turkey, check out my Ode to the Hand Turkey post from a couple years ago.

I love pulling out and looking at the art we create around the holidays.  One of my favorite memories from growing up is my grandmother displaying our turkeys, or sugar eggs, or snowmen alongside the fancy china for holidays.

What will you and your kiddos make this year?

Ode to the Hand Turkey

The Hand Turkey was certainly among the original hand print arts.  This year, Punkin' and I decided to create a few original pieces based on our interpretation:

All of our Hand Turkeys

We had everything we needed at the house:

• A few pieces of paper (I like card stock and buy packs of it at Michaels or Hobby Lobby whenever they have a really good sale)
• Craft paint - several colors
• Small brush
• Cute little hands

At 15 months, hand art is still fairly messy.  The biggest tip I have is to get everything setup before you start, including towels set aside to help clean and dry hands.  Not going to go into details about the steps other than to say start with hand prints and then and beaks, beards, eyes, and what not.  I also like to use a few different colors of card stock because I'm often surprised by which finished piece I like best.

Closeups...

I like to think these are a step up from most hand print art you see these days.  I think they'd make cute gifts (for grandparents or someone who really loves your kid, of course).