Easy Thanksgiving Craft: Turkey Handprint Painting & Keepsake

So Thanksgiving has come upon us again!  It’s unbelievable how quickly the holiday has approached us.  Well, we have a treat for you today!  Join us for this fun and easy Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint craft for kids.  It’s a great project to do with your kids or as a family! The best part is that it can be kept as a keepsake and decoration for years to come. So, get ready for some fun (and maybe a little bit of a mess) and join us for this easy step-by-step tutorial on how to make an easy Thanksgiving Craft Turkey Handprint Painting and keepsake with your little turkeys!

This idea came to me when I was thinking of a craft to do with my daughter.  We really enjoy doing crafts together and I wanted to do a craft that is not too complicated but also is beautiful but easy as well. I love that it’s simple but beautiful and is also a keepsake.  I think it’s really helped us keep our sanity during the last 9 months of challenges in 2020. 

You only need minimal supplies.  So, let’s get started right away!

Supplies needed for Easy Thanksgiving Craft Turkey Handprint Painting

• non-toxic acrylic paint
• canvas (or if you don’t have a canvas you can also use a cereal box)
• paintbrushes
• a cup of water to wash paint brushes
• Poscha pens (or other paint pens) – this is optional you can always just use paint and paint brush as well

Paint the background of your canvas or cardboard

The first step is to paint the background of your canvas or cardboard entirely.  Make sure to cover the whole background.  My daughter did this step and chose to do a red and orange background.  She did a cool ombre effect by blending the paint together where the colors meet instead of having a definitive line.  It came out really cool and was very vivid.  Whatever color or colors you plan to paint the background make sure it will make your handprint turkey stand out.  As mentioned we chose red and orange for the background and will do brown and yellow for the turkey.

The cool thing is that we did one small canvas with just one turkey handprint but also painted the inside of a cardboard box and did that painting with three turkey handprints.  You can use whatever canvas size you want and have one child do multiple handprints or create a family turkey handprint portrait where multiple kids/family members can put their handprints.  So many options and so little time!

Let the background dry entirely before moving on to the next step.  This took probably a maximum of half an hour for us.  You will have to check your painting to determine when it’s totally dry.

Paint Your Little Turkey’s or Turkeys’ Palms with Paint

So one of the beauties of this project is that you get to make a handprint keepsake craft of your little cutie’s handprint.  So the next step is painting the palm and finger (on the side of the palm) with paint to get ready to make a handprint.  As mentioned earlier we chose to paint the palm and the thumb brown and the rest of the inside of the fingers yellow.  We used non-toxic acrylic paint to do this.  Please make sure whatever paint you use it’s non-toxic and watch your little ones with the paint. 

It might be a little messy but the craft itself is quite easy.  Make sure that there is a decent amount of paint on the palm and inside of the fingers to be able to transfer the paint on to the canvas or cardboard.  Once you’re the inside of the palm and fingers have a good coat of paint on them, take your little turkey’s hand and place it face down on the canvas.  Make sure to keep it still and give it a good, even press.  You may have to help guide your little one with this step.

It can be a little messy depending on the age or ages of your kids!  That’s all part of the fun though (right?!).   

Make sure that your kids wash their hand thoroughly when done.

Let the Paint Dry

Make sure that you let the handprint thoroughly dry before moving on to the next step otherwise your paint can smudge and just make a plain old mess!

Give Your Turkey Some Personality and Draw a Face and Feet

Once your handprint turkey is dry, now you have to paint on eyes, a beak, a gobble, and feet!  Give it a little personality and make it your own.  We used our Poscha pens to draw on the face, gobble, and feet.  If you have Poschas they work really well and are very easy to work with.  If you don’t have Poscha pens (or other paint pens) on hand – don’t fret!  You can easy do the same thing with paint and a small brush for details.  We did our face and feet with a black Poscha pen and colored in the beaks yellow and the gobble red (of course!).

Let your cute little handprint turkey faces dry now.

Write “Happy Thanksgiving” On Your Painting

So the next step is to personalize your turkey handprint painting by painting on “Happy Thanksgiving” or whatever message you wish to put on your craft.  You can even personalize with a name, date, or whatever you like.

Let you painting dry and then hang it up to display.  If you did the inside of a cereal box option you can always frame the cardboard to make it a little fancier.

And voila…you have your finished easy Thanksgiving Craft Turkey Handprint Painting and Keepsake finished!

We hope you enjoyed this craft with us.  We’d love to hear how you did with your little turkeys!

Also, if you like this craft than check out our Gratitude Jar craft as well!

Wishing you a fantastic Thanksgiving!

As always live creatively.  Live intentionally.

Love,