Thumbprint Journals

Parent gifts are always hard.  You want to help the kids make something that is useful, yet doable.  Cute yet not too cutesie.  This year, I was inspired by my love of Field Notes to make little journals.  The kid-made aspect was a simple Ed Emberley inspired thumbprint picture and handwritten note inside.  Simple, useful, and cute.  I hope the parents love them as much as we do!

To make them, I found blank notecards at an art store.  Then, plain paper was cut to fit inside.  We used a sewing machine (yea!) to sew the books together.

During Workshop time, the kids filled a sheet of boxes with thumbprint drawings.  Washable inkpads and Flair pens were used.  They got very excited about this and experimented with ideas.  We used Ed Emberley's Thumbprint book for inspiration.

The hard part was picking out the best ones for the journals.  After filling the sheet, the kids picked out 2 favorite thumbprint drawings for their mom and dad.  They were cut out carefully and glued onto the front of the journals.

 A sweet note inside finishes it up.

I made a few for myself as well - you can never have too many little journals!