Father's Day Hand Art

A great keepsake for any parent, this easy project is a great gift for fathers and mothers.  Gather the kids, some mat board and a floating frame and you'll make memories while doing it as well.MATERIALS- Shadowbox frame- Mat board cut to fit frame, various colors- Exacto knifeSTEPSTrace the largest hand on the back of the piece of mat that you want in the front. (If it's a gift, I'll leave it to you to find a creative excuse for needing dad's hand tracing.) I used a bright color for the front mat of the layered hand piece pictured above.  You could also do a white front mat and have the mats behind it have a pop of color.  Cut it out using a Exacto knife with a fresh blade.Lay the mat with the large cut out hand upside down on top of the upside down mat you want to cut the smaller hand from.  I had traced my son's hand on a piece of paper and cut it out, so I laid that within the larger hand cut out to get the spacing right and traced around my cut out.  If you've got a live participant working with you, have them put their hand down and just trace it in place.  Cut out the smaller hand.Lay the larger hand cut out into the frame first.  Cut two 1.5" strip of scrap mat board to run at the top and bottom.  This will add a little space between your two mats.  Lay the smaller hand mat in next.  Finally, lay a solid mat in on top of the smaller hand cut out.  Now that all are in place, you'll probably not be able to put the back back on the frame, so secure everything in place using tape.If you have multiple small hands you need to represent (for our family I needed three), cut all three of the kid's hands from the front mat, use the spacer pieces and add the back mat.  You could also add mom or dad's hand on the left instead of the lettering.  So many options!!!!