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My youngest daughter is celebrating her first Christmas this year. Ā (That’s her sitting in the wreath… we think she’s pretty cute!) Ā I am big on “moments”, so I’m always worried about making sure I capture them before they pass us by! Ā To help get a little snapshot in time this holiday season, I made this plate with her footprints. Ā It’s not perfect, but I still love it. Ā I know we’ll use it around the holidays for years to come, and it will always remind us of this very special time when we celebrated our first Christmas as a family of six thanks to the arrival of this sweet baby girl. Ā And then someday this plate will be hers to use around the holidays. Ā I hope it will help her know how much she’s always been loved from the very beginning of her days…

 

 
I went to one of those paint-your-own-pottery places to make this. Ā (I love those places!!!)

To start, they told me I could use a washable marker to write the words. Ā I could then paint over the marker–it would burn off in the kiln. Ā Just make sure you use a different color (I used yellow) than the paint–otherwise it’s hard to tell what is paint and what is marker, and you’d hate to fire the piece and realize a letter is missing because you forgot to paint over the marker!

I’m a big fan of using the back of my paintbrush. Ā Just dip the wooden end into paint and put a little dot on the piece–perfect dots every time!

I wrote the words and put the dots around the edges at the pottery place, but then they let me take some paint home so I could stamp my baby’s feet there. Ā That step could have gone better!! Ā She wasn’t thrilled, and she kicked a bit which splattered dark green paint on the edge of the plate. Ā Oh well. Ā The messy footprints tell the story of how squirmy she is right now–and how she often has a mind of her own. Ā (See, if you look hard enough, there is always a positive!!) Ā :) Ā Since the dark green paint wouldn’t really come off where it splattered, I sponged the kiwi green color over the edges to hide the mistake–but I think it actually looks better that way anyhow!

I also decided to add a heart around her feet to fill in the plate a bit more… once again, I drew a heart with yellow washable marker and then painted over it. Ā (Make sure you use the really crappy markers!! Ā The people at the pottery place said that the nice markers don’t fire off in the kiln!) Ā After I painted the heart, I added more dots around the edge of it with the back of the paintbrush to tie in more of the kiwi color.

On the back I wrote a dedication to my daughter. Ā I used a writing pencil they had on hand that won’t fire off in the kiln. Ā They are a bit hard to write with, so I would recommend writing as large as possible to make sure you can read it.

To make a heart, use the wooden end of the paintbrush and make two dots–then pull the paint from the dots down and in to make a heart. Ā Easy!

Ta-da! Ā A little memory sitting right in front of me–love it! Ā And I hope my daughter will, too, someday… One last tip: Ā I never intended for the plate to look exactly like this. Ā I didn’t plan on the heart, for example. Ā You definitely want to think ahead a little bit before you start painting, but sometimes it’s good to let the piece evolve, too. Ā Just go for it and don’t worry about “perfection”!

Land Of Nod: Design for Kids and People That Used to be Kids
 
Happy Holidays everybody!

What fun ways have you captured moments in time like this? Ā I’d love to hear what you did!


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