Like I mentioned in last week’s post, I’m gearing up for football season!  That means getting ready to cheer on the Longhorns and Alabama.  Check out the cute “Hook ’em” footprint canvas in last week’s post.

This week, inspired by Pinterest handprint elephants, I created an Alabama handprint canvas.

Ready?  Here are the supplies you’ll need:

• Blank canvas (8″ x 10″ is good for single handprint, 11″ x 14″ for 2-3 handprints)
• Crimson and gray craft paint (or black & white paints mixed in place of gray)
• Sponge brush
• Coordinating ribbon (this houndstooth one is from Hobby Lobby)
• Pencil
• Black sharpie
• Scissors
• Staple gun

To start, I mixed the Crimson paint with some water to thin it out.  Then I painted the whole canvas with this to get a light crimson background.  I didn’t want the crimson to be so dark that the handprints/elephants didn’t stand out.

I painted it on in long even strokes.

You can see the strokes going across the canvas, but I like the depth that adds.

Be sure to paint the edges too!

Once the crimson dried, I mixed together black craft paint with a little bit of white to make a dark gray color for the handprints.  I used a foam paint brush and generously coated my child’s hand, then helped him firmly press it down on the canvas.  Keep in mind that the elephant is an upside-down handprint, so place it appropriately!  I did one handprint for each child.

Once the handprints were dry, I drew in the elephant details and words with pencil.  Then I went back over it with a medium-tip black sharpie.

I kept the elephants simple, just drawing on ears, eyes, tails, toenails, and a few stripes on each trunk.  I went over the letters a few times in Sharpie to make them thicker.

The final step is to add the ribbon border using a staple gun.  See last week’s post for in-depth instructions on doing that.  It’s simple and quick!

Here’s the finished product, ready to be displayed in the living room next month!

And here’s a photo of the backside after stapling on the ribbon, just so you can see how it’s finished in back.  Be sure to write a date on the back, so you’ll know how old the kids were when you made those precious handprints!  Roll tide!