Thumbprint Heart Jewelry Dish – Gifts Kids Can Make
Our 31 Days of Love series continues. Today we share a lovely little Fingerprint Craft from Stephanie at Modern Parents Messy Kids. This is a wonderful keepsake craft, that doubles up nicely as a Valentine’s Day gift or Mother’s Day gift. So be inspired and make it for Mum’s birthday or for another special day. Gorgeous.
Hi guys, I’m Steph – mom to three young children, a lifestyle and parenting blogger, and the ย founder of Modern Parents Messy Kids (MPMK for short).ย MPMK was voted Best Craft Blog in Parents Magazine and has been featured by Theย Huffington Post, Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray and more. Through the site, Stephanie and herย team provide daily inspiration to thousands of parents on organizational projects for the home,ย healthy kid-friendly recipes, engaging playtime ideas, parenting tips, and ideas on what to doย with all those family photos!
Iโm so excited to be sharing this project with you guys today as Iโm totally smitten with how itย turned out. Although these sweet Thumbprint Heart ย Jewelry dishes are the perfect thing toย make for someone special on alentineโs Day, we actually made ours for another reasonโฆ Ourย beloved nanny is leaving us this week and words really canโt express how sad we are to see herย go.
She came to us about a month before my youngest child (now nearly 10 months old) was bornย and has been such a wonderful addition to our family. Although she only stays with the kids forย a few hours in the afternoon while I work in my home office, I still couldnโt imagine entrustingย their care to anyone else. She has truly been such a blessing.ย Needless to say, we couldnโt send her off without something special to remember us by. So weย decided to make these brilliant marbled clay jewelry dishes via A Beautiful Mess. To make the project aย little more personal, we added hearts made with two thumbprints of each child.
If youโd like to make one (or two or three) of these simple little dishes, hereโs what youโll needโฆ
Fingerprint Jewelry Dish – Materials
Sculpey oven bake clay in white, pewter, black, pink, and yellowย You can find Sculpey Clayย in the USย hereย and in the UK here (affiliate links)
Small oven-safe bowl
Gold paint
Rolling pin
Large can, jar, bowl, etc. to trace a circle around
Head over to theย original tutorial for all the details on how to create the basic marbled dish. Itโs so well done Iย donโt feel the need to re-write it here.
As you can see, the one extra step we included was using each childโs thumb to make a heart inย the dish before placing it in the bowl to bake.
Once the dishes were baked and fully cooled, I simply dry-brushed a few light layers of goldย paint over the hearts. This really helped to highlight the thumbprints and make them stand out inย the dish.
Here are a few more tips I learned along the way:
Use a lot more white clay than any other color for a truly modern marbled effect.
I used a standard soup bowl as my mold for my largest dish and was really pleasedย with the size – perfect for bracelets and/or necklaces.
I used a sparkly pewter color of Sculpey clay (instead of the plain gray suggested)ย and LOVED the sparkle that ended up running throughout the dish.
I couldnโt find gold liquid gilding so I just used standard gold craft paint for the edgesย and the hearts and it turned out great.
Donโt skip the glaze! This really transformed the look of the dishes from kind-of-craftyย to really gorgeous.
Thatโs pretty much it but feel free to experiment!
We played with the size of dishes as well as the form (one with a precisely cut circle and oneย more free-formed, draped over the bottom of a mason jar). I also liked the look of painting justย the trim gold on the larger dish but the entire underside gold on the smaller ring dish.
This is one of those projects that really can be done a million different ways – and it doesnโt takeย long at all to complete, even with the kids helping. I really hope youโll try it!
If you liked this craft, you might also like these MPMK Projects…
This is a great craft and very easy to do. Today I told the story of St Valentine to a 2 year old, a 3 year old and a 4 year old, then we made these dishes for their Mums. We cut out heart shapes for the bowls and balanced them on a muffin pan. They came out really well. Thank-you for the idea. We only put on one coat of glaze and omitted the gold rims, but the children loved them and so did their mums.
How much white clay would you say you used? I am wanting to make three dishes, and I currently have 4 oz. of white. I’m wondering if I should pick up more before starting? I also have 2 oz of each the silver, black, yellow and pink.
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Vanessa Cato says
This is a great craft and very easy to do. Today I told the story of St Valentine to a 2 year old, a 3 year old and a 4 year old, then we made these dishes for their Mums. We cut out heart shapes for the bowls and balanced them on a muffin pan. They came out really well. Thank-you for the idea. We only put on one coat of glaze and omitted the gold rims, but the children loved them and so did their mums.
Jessica says
How much white clay would you say you used? I am wanting to make three dishes, and I currently have 4 oz. of white. I’m wondering if I should pick up more before starting? I also have 2 oz of each the silver, black, yellow and pink.
Red Ted Art says
Eeep. This was a guest post, I am afraid, don’t exactly know how much you need for each bowl. So sorry :-/