Jellyfish Footprint Kids Craft

DISCLOSURE: Some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, which come at no cost to you. Know that I only promote products I personally use and stand behind. To learn more about my affiliates, please review my disclosure policy here.

We recently sent out invitations to Brielle and Hailey’s joint Under the Sea themed birthday party happening in a few weeks. To make it a little more personalized the girls each took the time to do some footprint paintings which we turned into cute jellyfish designs that we slipped inside!

Since this isn’t my first time doing footprint crafts with the girls, I’ve learned a lot along the way and wanted to pass some tips onto you!

Protect your surface. I often use newspaper but really prefer larger sheets of paper for coverage or even doing this outside! Large rolls of wrapping paper or kraft paper are much better than newspaper. With newspaper the little ones, like 10 month old Hailey, grab at the loose corners of the newsprint and tend to play and rip it. (aka the above photo is a good example of what NOT to do!)

With infants, do the craft on the floor but near a table. In this case, we craft right by our kitchen table. Once I do the prints I throw them up on the kitchen table nearby. This way, when I’m cleaning up I don’t have to worry about the baby going over and touching the newly printed papers as they dry.

Put paint on a paper plate large enough for their hand or feet. We often use a brush (“this tickles”) to get full coverage for our print but you can also dip their foot into the paint right on the plate.

Keep wet paper towels nearby. You’ll likely need to clean up their feet soon after printing and will want towels in case they wiggle a lot and it gets on you.

Dress appropriately. That’s my next point, even though we use washable paint, you and your kids shouldn’t wear their Sunday best.
Lastly, with any craft project, make sure kids are well fed and slept well so they aren’t cranky and angry. With footprint/handprint crafts you’ll have to do some holding of their arms and legs and you don’t want them extra angry for this restrictive position.

Once the footprints were dry, I used some googly eyes and a marker drawings to turn them into super cute jellyfish! Oh and after I took this shot, my blogger-in-training took one with her camera too. :)