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A Wintery Cardinal Handprint Craft For Kids

Recently, we’ve really dived headfirst into handprint crafts for kids.

Once we did our first handprint craft, we were hooked.

The kids love seeing their hands transform into fun characters and parents enjoy watching them use their creativity and imagination to make the crafts.

Since winter is right around the corner, we decided to create a new winter themed handprint craft.

This cardinal handprint craft is the perfect winter craft for kids of all ages!

If you’re looking for more fun winter crafts for your children or students, read or watch below to see how simple this one is to create.

Cardinal Handprint Craft

handprint cardinal craft

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It’s so exciting for kids to turn just a few simple supplies into something totally new and different.

This handprint craft is not only fun but also gives them an opportunity to work on things like proper pencil grasp, cutting practice, following directions and more!

Cardinal Hand Print Supplies

  • Colored cardstock or construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Cotton balls
  • Glue stick
  • Googly eyes (optional)
  • 1″ and .5″ circle punch (optional; you can also freehand with scissors)
  • Standard hole punch (optional)

Directions

Trace your child’s hand twice on the red cardstock and cut out each handprint.

Cut out a beak and legs for the cardinal from the yellow cardstock.

Cut a long strip of brown cardstock out for the base of the tree and two shorter ones for the branches.

Glue the long strip of brown cardstock vertically onto the light blue cardstock. Glue the branches horizontally onto the tree trunk.

hands gluing brown paper onto blue paper

Make the cardinal by positioning one handprint sideways and the other handprint angled down. Glue together.

hands gluing red handprint together in the shape of a bird

Cut out a rectangular shape from the black cardstock and then cut the corners off of two sides (like in the picture).

Glue the black rectangle onto the cardinal with a small overlap on the edge and then trim to the handprint.

hands gluing black paper onto handprint cardinal face

Punch out a .5″ circle from the black cardstock and a 1″ circle from the white cardstock. Use the hole punch to punch out a small white circle.

Assemble the cardinal’s eye by gluing the small white circle onto the 1″ black circle. Then glue the 1″ black circle onto the 2″ white circle.

Alternatively, you can use a large googly eye too!

Glue the eye onto the black rectangle.

Glue the beak and legs onto the cardinal body and then glue the entire bird onto the top branch.

hands gluing beak onto handprint cardinal craft
hands gluing legs onto handprint cardinal craft

Tear apart a cotton ball and glue on the branches and all over the page to resemble snow falling.

hands gluing handprint cardinal onto paper tree

This is such a fun handprint craft to make together with your kids this winter season!

winter handprint craft for kids

Benefits Of This Craft

Sometimes as parents we just think we’re having fun with our kids when we craft. Of course, we totally are but there’s actually lots of benefits besides memory building! 

When kids work on this craft they’re getting tons of cutting practice and fine motor skills. Every piece of the bird and the tree requires kids to strengthen the muscles in their hand and work with precision. 

cardinal craft

Kids also are engaging both sides of their brain. The right, creative side is imagining exactly what they want their completed picture to look like while the left, logical side is planning what part needs to go where. 

Simplifying This Craft

If you’re doing this craft with a large group of kids or with very young children, there are a few ways to simplify the craft. 

First, you can completely eliminate the second handprint. We personally love the way the second handprint makes the double bird wings, but you can also just leave it off and it will still look cute. 

handprint bird craft

Second, you can remove the card stock legs and tree. Instead, you can draw them on with crayons or markers, or simply make the handprint bird without a background. 

Another suggestion is to remove the cotton balls and use snowflake stickers instead. 

As you can see, there’s lots of ways to make this craft simpler for young kids like toddlers! 

handprint christmas craft

Share With Us

Did you make this craft with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!

For a chance to have your child’s craft featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!

handprint christmas craft

More Winter Craft For Kids

More Winter Ideas For Kids

winter handprint craft for kids

Cardinal Handprint Craft For Kids

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Learn how to make this easy cardinal handprint craft for kids this winter!

Materials

  • Colored cardstock or paper (in red, black, white, golden yellow, brown and light blue)
  • Cotton balls
  • Glue stick
  • Googly eyes (optional)

Tools

  • 1" and .5" circle punch (optional; you can also use scissors or googly eyes)
  • Standard hole punch (optional)
  • Scissors

Instructions

  1. Trace your child's hand twice on the red cardstock and cut out each handprint.
  2. Cut out a beak and legs for the cardinal from the golden yellow cardstock.
  3. Cut a long strip of brown cardstock out for the base of the tree and two shorter ones for the branches.
  4. Glue the long strip of brown cardstock vertically onto the light blue cardstock. Glue the branches horizontally onto the tree trunk.
  5. Make the cardinal by positioning one handprint sideways and the other handprint angled down. Glue together.
  6. Cut out a rectangular shape from the black cardstock and then cut the corners off of two sides (like in the picture).
  7. Punch out a .5" circle from the black cardstock and a 1" circle from the white cardstock. Use the hole punch to punch out a small white circle.
  8. Assemble the cardinal's eye by gluing the small white circle onto the 1" black circle. Then glue the 1" black circle onto the 2" white circle.
  9. Glue the black rectangle onto the cardinal with a small overlap on the edge and then trim to the handprint.
  10. Glue the eye onto the black rectangle.
  11. Glue the beak and legs onto the cardinal body and then glue the entire bird onto the top branch.
  12. Tear apart a cotton ball and glue on the branches and all over the page to resemble snow falling.

Did you make this craft?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

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Emilee

Friday 26th of January 2024

I want this craft, it is so cute! Thanks :)

Sam

Friday 26th of January 2024

Thanks! This is one of the few crafts we have that doesn't have a template, but you can read how we made it in the directions section.

Lolo

Monday 8th of January 2024

I want this Thank you

Sam

Tuesday 9th of January 2024

This post is one of the few that we don't have a template for, but the directions explain how to do it ◡̈

Tammy

Monday 17th of April 2023

Where is Template? couldn't make it with my class

Sam

Tuesday 18th of April 2023

This is one of the very few crafts that doesn't have a template to go with it.

Shaheen

Monday 26th of November 2018

Unable to get template

Sam T

Tuesday 27th of November 2018

Hi! There's actually no template for this craft because you can create the shapes easily. There are directions and if they aren't clear, you can also watch the video. Hope this helps :)

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