DIY Footprint Butterfly Serving Tray

Hello! I’m Linda from Night Owl Corner and I’m excited to be here today to share a fun craft with you! If you’ve visited my blog before, you know I love to do handprint – footprint crafts with my daughters Sophie and Audrey. They’re fun for kids because all little ones love getting paint all over their fingers and toes, and parents love them too because they make such a special keepsake. Today I’m going to show you how to paint a footprint butterfly serving tray with your child’s footprints!

DIY Footprint Butterfly Serving Tray

You will need a wooden serving tray for this craft. You can often find plain wooden ones at craft stores like Michaels or AC Moore, or pick one up at a place like TJ Maxx or Marshalls. Start by painting the tray white so you have a clean, neutral surface to work with. Now comes the fun part! Grab your little one and use a foam brush to paint the bottom of his or her foot with acrylic paint. I recommend using three different colors — one color on the toes, another color for the middle of the foot, and a third color for the heels. Then gently stamp their foot on the tray. Repeat for the other foot, making sure that you position them so that the right foot gets stamped to make the left side of the butterfly and the left foot gets stamped to make the right side of the butterfly. After the “butterflies” dry, paint on a body and antennae.

Next type the children’s names in a Word document using  a font of your choice. I used a pretty script font called Black Jack. Print out the name, and trace the BACK of the name with a charcoal pencil. Then position the name on the tray with the charcoal side down and secure it with tape. Gently rub so that the charcoal transfers to your tray. When you lift it off, you’ll have an outline of the name you can use as a guide for painting.

Of course, if you’re really brave you can just free hand this whole process but being the perfectionist I am I prefer to know exactly what it’s going to look like before I paint it! I will admit…painting the name is not easy. Just go slowly and try to keep your hand as steady as possible. You can always touch it up with white paint if you get off track!

When the paint is dry, spray the whole tray with at least 2 coats of clear acrylic finish to protect your design. Now you have a beautiful keepsake to remember how sweet and little those feet once were for years to come! Here’s our finished product:

I’d love for you to stop by my blog, Night Owl Corner to check out some of the other handprint – footprint crafts we’ve done.