DLTK's Bible Crafts for Kids
Handprint and Footprint Angel Craft
(with poem)

To see a copy of the finished craft check out the Fan Art.  Thanks to Nikki for sending it in!!

This Christmas angel has a footprint body and two handprint wings.  Use a heavy paper, craft foam or posterboard for a longer lasting version.

The craft is made with paper, some crayons, scissors, string and glue.  You will also need a (fairly big) photo of the child or a picture from a magazine (you could even use a teddy bear head for a teddy angel). 

Unusual for me, there is no template for this particular craft (but it's terribly cute, even without one!)

• Have child stand on paper (or posterboard/craft foam) with feet together.  Trace to form body/robe of the angel.
• Trace both hands (or use yellow paint and make a paint handprint) on white paper.  These will form the wings.  They look better if the fingers aren't spread too far apart.
• Decorate robe and wings as desired.  Some ideas:
  • fill in the wings with sparkles/sparkle glue
  • glue bits of shiny gift wrap (gold) or yellow tissue paper to the wings
  • glue bits of shiny gift wrap (silver), a coloured tissue paper or tinfoil to the robe
  • glue ribbon to the center of the robe as a belt
• Cut out a photo of the child or magazine picture to serve as the head.  Once you see how big the body is, you'll know what size head you need (it all depends on how big your child's feet are).
• Assemble the angel (glue head and wings to the body).
• Add a halo if desired:
  • can use pipecleaner or ribbon shaped as a halo, or 
  • cut out a many pointed star shape or just a simple circle (depending on how energetic you are feeling) from shiny gift wrap or tinfoil and paste behind head (should totally surround the head).
• Either on the back of the robe or on a separate tag, write the following poem:

This little angel is special you see;
Because she is a part of me.
Her wings are my hands,
Her body my feet,
And on the tree she'll look very sweet.

• You can also add the child's name and the year.
• Add a string if you wish to hang on the tree.
• You can also use it as a lovely personalized gift tag guaranteed to make the grandparents either smile or break into tears *grin*

Karen, one of our viewers, shared her comments:

I wanted to share this.....at Christmas, we did the angel foot prints and handprints. I also, used my scanner and enlarged the kids faces, so that each angel looked like the child. I used a gold glitter pipe cleaner and taped it to the back, leaving enough at the top to make a halo.  The parents LOVED it!!! I guess for a brief moment, they can look upon this craft and honestly say "look at my little angel" teeeheee....

Heather, one of our viewers, shared her comments:

Instead of each making their own: I used the eldest child's foot for the body, and two different shades of yellow for the 3 little hand prints. It gave the angel's wings a wonderful 3d look.
On the tag, I changed the wording from 'I' to 'we'.  Then in parenthesis I put their names and the hand or foot that was theirs. (ie.  Noah-foot, Alec-hand, etc.) I also burned the edges of each tag, to give it a neat look.  I had to put a self adhesive magnet on each wing, as it was too heavy for just one.

Printable version of these instructions