Life flows, children grow up, mothers and fathers let them go free, and only touching memories of how small they were remain in the soul ... Parents try in every way to capture their children: they take photos, videos. We offer another interesting way - to make casts of the baby's arms and legs.

Time is so fleeting... It would seem that not so long ago children learned to walk, and today young grandparents are looking at photo albums and souvenirs related to the childhood of their grandchildren's parents. More and more new generations are brought up on such memorabilia. Family histories backed up by "physical evidence" are always much more valuable than those to which there is nothing to attach. One of such cute “evidence” that mom and dad, it turns out, were also small, can be a handmade panel with casts of arms and legs. You can make casts of the baby’s arms and legs with your own hands in several ways, we will tell you about the most accessible ones.

How to make an impression of the baby's hands and feet?

Sand cast of hands/feet

We will tell you about the simplest method that a mother who does not know the art of sculpture can easily handle. The cast can then be decorated with buttons, shells and chains.

For creativity you will need:

• fine sand;
• cookie tin;
• alabaster;
• tassel.

How to do?

1. Sand is poured into the box and leveled. A child's imprint is made in the center.

2. Next, the alabaster powder is diluted very quickly with water to the consistency of thick sour cream.

3. With a thin stream, it is poured into the cast. The thickness of the material above the sand is from 2 to 4 cm.

4. The container is left for 20 minutes or more, a cast is taken out and the grains of sand are cleaned with a brush. Then you can start decorating the cast.

Decorative panel "Casts of the handle of the leg" from auxiliary materials

1. We make salty dough from half a glass of salt and a glass of water, add enough flour to make an elastic dough. So that it does not stick to the arms and legs, it must be kneaded and let it stand for a while. If desired, you can lubricate the palms and feet of the legs with vegetable oil, but with a well-kneaded dough, you can do without it.
2. If the baby is only a few months old, he can pull oiled hands into his eye, he can involuntarily wipe them on his mother's clothes. It is not always possible to make casts when the child is sleeping, because the handle will need to be pressed, and it is generally better to do the leg while standing for good pressure. After all, all the lines of fate should be imprinted!

3. Don't think that we made too much dough, because it needs to be divided into 4 equal parts in order to take prints from two handles and two legs. Gently press the dry hand or foot of the baby into the resulting thick cakes. If the pattern could not be made clear, the dough can be crumpled and repeat the procedure again.

4. Before taking prints, select suitable containers or boards for pieces of dough, because dough molds are only the first stage of work. It would be possible to leave them too, but after a few months the dough will lose its shape.

5. We got four cakes with indentations in the form of feet and hands.

6. Now you can dilute dry gypsum or alabaster to the consistency of thick sour cream. Stir them thoroughly so that there are no air bubbles or unmixed clumps. Do not forget that alabaster hardens very quickly, you need to work with it extremely quickly, with gypsum you can work more slowly. The resulting solution is poured into the recesses to their edges and left to dry completely. After that, we clean the casts from the dough, preserving the structure of the imprinted skin.

7. It is best to paint with gold or bronze from spray guns. These materials are much better than other paints, they emphasize the texture and will look great on your panel.

8. On the prepared rectangle or square of thick cardboard, we glue the resulting casts, a photo of the baby, with a special gun with glue or liquid nails, around you can put an ornament of buttons, pieces of plastic, feathers and other beautiful little things. And insert the molds into the frame.

Someone uses plastic instead of salt dough, someone buys special kits for casts, but the dough inspires more confidence because it is environmentally friendly.

Casts of arms and legs from dough - video

Home-made ceramics "Casts of the handle-legs"

1. Wet sand can be used instead of dough. But for this you need to find good clean fine sand or thoroughly rinse the existing one. Then pour it into the chosen container.
2. Let's say you have chosen a round or oval container, in the center of which the baby's leg can easily fit, and along the edges you can place shells, circles, a chain, beads - everything that can be beautifully and embossed imprinted on wet sand. The entire resulting composition will need to be filled with the same alabaster or gypsum, and when everything is dry, the surface must be cleaned of sand and painted.

3. You don’t need to stick anything on cardboard, but you will have to choose a frame for the formed round or oval plaster panel. However, if you immediately decide on a beautiful and neat container and don’t get anything out of it, its edges can serve as a frame, only a hole in the upper segment will have to be drilled in advance so that it includes a self-tapping screw head, on which you will put the decoration.

4. Clay, rather than gypsum, may become a more logical material here. And you get a great ceramic disc. It remains only to figure out where and how to burn it. But this is for those who have experience with clay.

Ideas - baby prints

Our mothers circled our hands and feet in childhood, so that in the children's album there would be a memory of what we were. Already at school, we circled them ourselves and gave them to each other.

Today you can make an imprint of the child's hand and foot with every fold on the skin. And your Romeo will be able to give his Juliet in kindergarten not just a picture, but a three-dimensional copy of his pen. In our age, you won’t surprise anyone with photographs, videos are shot with a mobile phone, and casts of children’s arms and legs in 3D format are really exclusive, which cannot be bought, you can only order a master or make it yourself.

Godparents buy a gift certificate for this service so that an adult child will remember them with gratitude. Lovers (as in the "Avenue of Stars") and newlyweds order handprints on a stand with engraving. For the hero of the day, you can call a specialist at home, and organize a gift - a procedure as part of the holiday program.

Now it is fashionable to collect sculptural copies of the entire family and keep them as family heirlooms for posterity. Many people order accurate 3D sculptures of their hands.

Of course, such casts were invented a long time ago, but this service was expensive, and not everyone dared to take their crumbs across the city to the sculptor's workshop. Children grow rapidly, and I want to leave an extraordinary gift in memory of childhood. When your child becomes famous, these casts will be worth more than gold. Now many masters provide this service, but it is quite possible to manage on your own at home.

Children's casts. Method one - on the sand

Tools and materials

Step-by-step instruction

1. Sand is poured into a bowl (without tamping).
2. Carefully in the center we make an imprint of the handle or foot of the child.
3. Along the edges we lay out the selected decor for prints.
4. Dilute alabaster to the consistency of sour cream (preferably with cold water, as it seizes very quickly).
5. In a thin stream, so as not to spoil the work, pour the solution onto the sand with a layer of 2 - 3 cm.
6. After 15 minutes, when the alabaster completely hardens, carefully remove it from the mold.
7. > We clean it from sand with a brush and cover it with paint, varnish, apply a commemorative inscription.

Materials of casts of children's hands and feet are very diverse. We got used to the sand, you can experiment with plasticine.

Method two - plasticine

Tools and materials

• children's soft plasticine;
• gypsum;
• PVA glue;
• decor material.

Step-by-step instruction

Method three - in the test

Tools and materials

• wheat flour - 1 cup;
• fine salt - half a glass;
• vegetable oil or glue - 1 tbsp;
• paints;
• decor material.

Step-by-step instruction

For grandparents, this is the most desired gift that they will keep for a lifetime.

But no one canceled grandmother's fun and simple method - if there are hypoallergenic paints in the house, just give your child paper and paints - and you will have a lot of prints in five minutes.

If you have mastered simple methods from simple improvised materials, you can purchase a set for professionals.

Children grow up very quickly, and you need to have time to catch moments that will delight you all your life!

The easiest and cheapest way is to print with any paints on paper. It is better to take finger or watercolor paints, apply them to a pen or a leg, and put an imprint on a landscape sheet. Then you can beautifully arrange the free space around the print. To prevent the leaf from fraying over time, it is better to laminate it, and only then put it in a frame.

Plasticine prints

There is another easy way to make an imprint: buy modeling mass or modern plasticine (one that dries itself in air) in any store. Choose the color you like the most. You need to take the mass and flatten it into the desired shape, and only then press well with a pen or leg. Do not forget to make a hole for the ribbon, so that later you have something to hang your “home relic” on. Leave the workpiece overnight and it will dry.

Homemade salt dough print

This type of print making is more time consuming, but the result will be more interesting.

For the test we need: 1 cup flour, 1 cup salt, 2 tbsp. sunflower oil and 0.5 - 1 tbsp. water. Knead the dough. Let it lie down for half an hour, you can in the refrigerator.

1. Knead the dough, roll it into a ball, then roll it out with a rolling pin, about 1.5 - 2 cm thick;
2. Take the foil, place the dough cake on it and chill the dough in the refrigerator;
3. Lubricate the baby’s handle (leg) with sunflower oil and press it into the dough;
4. Do not forget to make a hole in the dough for the ribbon so that the finished "work of art" can be hung;
5. If the print suits you, it should be left to dry for 2-3 weeks;
6. After about a week, you can turn over by carefully removing the foil;
7. When the print dries, paint it with acrylic paints.

Salt dough mold

This type of mold making is also quite painstaking. For him, we need salt dough, plaster, acrylic paint. We make the dough according to the recipe above.

Take a larger lump of dough so that the print is deep. On this lump of dough we print a handle or a leg. We take plaster. It is necessary to dilute gypsum in a ratio of 1/3 gypsum to 2/3 water. To begin with, we dilute a little gypsum and lubricate the contour with a brush and leave for 10 minutes so that the gypsum dries. Next, we prepare the second part of the plaster and fill the imprint to the brim. Let dry for 15 minutes.

When the plaster dries, it will be necessary to bend the soft dough. Do this very carefully so as not to damage the casts. The remaining pieces of dough on the casts must be carefully removed. Everything, now you can start coloring!

Casts of sand

Sand casts look very beautiful and creative. We will need: sand, plaster, frame.

1. We take dry river sand and sift it through a sieve;
2. Then the sand needs to be moistened, add a little water to it;
3. We take a form (frame) and fill it with wet sand, then we make an imprint in it (spread your palm and press lightly on it);
4. Then take plaster. It is necessary to dilute gypsum in the ratio: add 2/3 of water to 1/3 of gypsum;
5. From above, fill the mold with gypsum and leave until it hardens;
6. Shake off the remaining sand and your "sand print" is ready!

Casts from sets for creativity

If you do not want to spend a lot of time learning how to make casts, then get ready-made. With it, you can even make a child's fist. In such sets, everything is already included in the kit and you just have to follow the step-by-step instructions.

Babies in their first year of life grow so fast that their parents don't even have time to look back. But you really want to capture in your memory the moments when the baby is very small. The way out of the situation is casts of arms and legs. Buying a ready-made kit for their manufacture is now not difficult. However, the price of such kits is often surprising, and the creative components included in the composition seriously limit the imagination. How realistic is it to make casts of arms and legs with your own hands, using improvised means? It turns out that the procedure is quite simple, and the materials will require quite a bit!

Plaster casts

How to make casts of arms and legs with your own hands using plaster? You need to take plasticine, you can even use old plasticine, heat it up in a microwave oven and form a cake so that a foot or palm print can fit on it. Then we make an imprint on the cake. If the first time does not work out, then you just need to re-heat the mass. To make the print clearer and deeper, when pressing, fix the edges of the cake so that they do not diverge to the sides.

It is convenient to use a certain form with sides for this. After obtaining an acceptable result, the cast is placed in a freezer to harden. We breed gypsum for sculptural works (can be purchased at an art store) in accordance with the instructions and additionally add a little PVA glue, pour the resulting mass into cakes with prints, leave for a while to harden. When the gypsum hardens, the resulting casts are carefully cleaned of plasticine and left for about a day for final drying. Then you should lightly walk on them with sandpaper, removing roughness and irregularities. This should be done very carefully so as not to crumble the finished product. From above it is necessary to apply paint in several layers. The most popular options are bronze or metallic silver, but the choice of color is up to you. After drying, the casts of the arms and legs (by the way, made with your own hands) are ready! They can be placed in a deep frame, mounted on a stand or otherwise fit into the interior.

Casts of alabaster

The second, no less budgetary way with which you can make casts of arms and legs with your own hands is to use alabaster as a base. It is necessary to mix five glasses of flour, two and a half glasses of fine salt, a tube of baby cream, mix. Gradually add water, achieving the consistency of plasticine. We make cakes of the required shape and make prints of the feet and hands. The casts are placed in the oven and dried at a low temperature until hardened. Lubricate the prints with petroleum jelly and fill with diluted alabaster, leave to dry. After complete drying, carefully remove the casts from the mold using a nail file, file, other improvised means, give them a neat shape. After that, we cover the casts with paint of the desired color and let it dry.

We looked at two of the easiest ways to make casts of arms and legs with your own hands. As you can see, it is quite simple and accessible to parents. And the possibilities of further decoration are limited only by the range of products of the art store! It can be a beautiful frame in a marine style for a boy, decorated with pebbles and shells, a flower arrangement for a girl. Or you can even make a cast of the pen every month and by the end of the year draw up an unusual panel, which will clearly show how quickly the baby grew during this period.

As soon as you have a baby, be sure to make prints of children's hands and feet with your own hands! Time flies very quickly and the imprint of the baby's hand will no longer be repeated! Try to make a panel with prints in the very first days of the baby's life, because the kids sleep much better at first, and there is a little more free time.

Below is mine master class with a photo of how to make the prints of the hands and feet of the baby voluminous, and now I will tell about all the other methods known to me.

It is best to make prints of the baby's hands in a dream, and then wipe your hands with wet wipes. The easiest way to make prints of the arms and legs of the baby is with paint. The “useful” of all, that is, completely harmless to the baby’s delicate skin, is to make prints on salt dough.

How to make baby footprints and handprints on salt dough
Although this is the easiest way, it is also the most not durable. Keep in mind that over time you will have to throw out the dough, as it can deteriorate, for example, soften from moisture. A good coat of varnish will help keep a salt dough pen print looking good, but it won't survive to the grandchildren.

Salt dough recipe for prints:
Salt dough for prints is made in the most primitive way! Take the finest grinding salt and mix with flour 1 to 1, for example, a glass of flour to a glass of salt. And add a little water, kneading a cool dough. If overfilled, add flour. Then you can take a plastic container, place a dough cake there, make an imprint, if necessary, cut a circle around it and put it in a dry place. Bake, as it is said in many master classes on casts of handles and legs from salt dough, no need! The dough will change its shape and the print will deform. After a few days, the print can be covered with acrylic paint and varnish on any surface (varnish is sold in hardware stores).

How to make prints from plaster with your own hands
I made these with my eldest daughter, but I didn’t really like the result, because they are quite heavy and then there is nowhere to put them. To make plaster prints of the arms and legs of a child, buy plaster at a hardware store (20 rubles a pack), dilute according to the instructions on the package. Pour into a beautifully shaped container - a round cup, for example, previously covered with cling film. Touch with your finger - after a few minutes, when the plaster begins to harden and becomes more dense, make an imprint with the hand and foot of the child, smeared with sunflower oil or a very greasy cream. Take it out of the mold. Ideally, use silicone molds.

And now I'm sharing my experience How to make volumetric casts of the arms and legs of the baby at home!

It so happened that I made prints of the children's hands of my children from salt dough when the youngest son was born. Then she left them to harden on the windowsill and safely forgot about them for several months. When I remembered my desire to make voluminous hands for babies, the size of the hands of the kids was not at all the same! But she took out the blanks from the dough and ... found that they had almost deteriorated - some became soft, some were completely softened, some still somehow held on with their last strength (here it is - minus the salt dough!). It was necessary to urgently save the situation. And I remembered that I had the cheapest self-hardening plastic, bought for training in sculpting doll heads, lying around for half a year.

Here it is in the photo, the pack was a kilogram (365 re), there are enough prints for 10. I bought in the Gostinka (St. Petersburg), in the department on the first floor with brushes, paints, etc. Those who live in another city will be able to order self-hardening plastic on the Internet or buy in large cities in stores with goods for artists. Doll-making stores will have better plastic and four times the price. Still in the photo - in the same department I bought the cheapest acrylic paints for any surface (92 rubles for the entire set. It will be enough for 10 years if my daughter doesn’t get it).

And now about how to make a three-dimensional cast of a baby's legs and arms from plastic.

First, make prints from salt dough and leave them to harden. In general, you can varnish them, wash them after work and then give them as a keepsake to grandparents. I read on the Internet that I advise you to make the basis for casts from the same plastic. But, firstly, it is not very soft, and secondly, it does not smell very pleasant, so I didn’t want to touch the child’s skin with it.

She drained the oil, kneaded the plastic pancake and imprinted it in the print. That is, she pressed it well with her fingers so that it took the form of a child's hand. So that it would not break later, I added pieces of plastic to the washed one. I don't have a very smooth surface, because this plastic also lay in my not very well closed pack for more than nine months, so it was not very plastic and crumbled. Your print should repeat all the smallest folds of the baby's arms and legs.

I took out the imprint, after the oil it is removed easily.

Since my dough was already softened, I removed the crumbs with a cotton swab with oil. If you have a fresh print, and even varnished, you don’t need to do this.

I cut it out with an ordinary knife, left it to dry on a flat surface for several days.

Even the smallest can be involved in covering children's casts of arms and legs with paint, they will be happy to help!

Then I covered the plastic casts with two more layers of gold paint.

It is not necessary to varnish acrylic on any surface. Then all that remains is to make a beautiful panel! You can stick not only casts of arms and legs, but also photographs of children, some memorabilia, first socks and a pacifier ...

Ideally, glue with a hot gun (a small one in hardware stores, for example, I saw about 150 rubles in the Ob). You can use glue moment. For the background, take a very thick cardboard, but it is better to paint the thick base of the frame itself.

I still don’t know what kind of panel I want, I made a rough sketch for you. But, of course, I want to use paper, frames, etc. - in general, there is still a lot of work, but the result is worth it! And if you want to make three-dimensional casts of the child’s arms and legs as a keepsake that will remain intact until your very old age, it is best to use a deep frame for three-dimensional panels, in which the distance from the substrate to the glass is about 3 cm.

Successful creativity!
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