Footprints!
Jun 30th, 2008 by Alicia
A few days ago I posted that I wanted to do some of the items from an old list of 10 ways to make the day magical. One of the items was:
Have the kids decorate the bottoms of each other’s feet with washable markers (or do it with your little ones). This can be delightfully tickly. When they’re all done, take a picture if you like and then assign them the task of running around in puddles till they’re clean. To extend the fun, mist a large piece of white paper with water and let them stomp on it and leave foot stamps of their designs.
The kids and I all headed into the backyard and decorated like mad.
It was quite a lot of fun!
It took some experimentation to find which brands of markers bled best and what method created the best stamps. By the end we had a whole printing press system set up!
We learned a lot of things, like not to let the paper get too wet or wiggle our feet at all or the paper would rip. Too much water and it washed off the marker. And some of the brightest colors on our feet didn’t show at all on the footprints.
It was a quick and easy craft, and the kids and I all had a lot of fun. 
What fun! Our kids like to decorate their dad’s feet with markers. I think it started when one of them offered to “paint” his fingernails with markers several years ago and, concerned that it may not wash off completely, he offered up his toenails instead. They always end up making him roll up his pantlegs too and tatooing him clear up to his kneecaps. If he’s really lucky, they haul out the big bag of hair accessories and turn him into a drag queen. Priceless pictures, fit for future blackmail (should they ever want to borrow money or car keys). ;o)
I could never sit still long enough to get that done. I am just too ticklish.