DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Swan Fingerprints Craft

I love fingerprint crafts and, as an adult, I still do them on a regular basis when making cards for people.

I use dye-based ink pads intended for fingerprint or stamp projects but when crafting with kids I opt for non-toxic tempera paint as it's a safer option (in case someone decides to taste the paint or wipe their hands on their t-shirt. Lol)

You can make these swans on a dark coloured background with white paint or you can make black swans on a white background with black paint. Or, you can make your own brightly coloured swans with any colour of paint you like! ("peacock swans"?)

I've provided a swan template and a letter S template (both make lovely swans) but you can also encourage the kids to draw their own letter S or simple swan.

Materials:

• Printer
• Scissors
• Glue
• Tempera paint (whatever colour you want your swan's tail feathers to be)
• Thick paper towel or napkin
• Construction paper (in a colour that contrasts with your paint colour)

Instructions:

• Print out the template of choice or draw your own.
• Cut out and colour the swan template.
• Glue the template piece onto your piece of construction paper, leaving room for the tail.
• Put a dollop of tempera paint on a napkin or folded up piece of paper towel. This is going to act as your fingerprint "ink pad".
• Stick your finger onto the paint on your napkin and dab it off a little bit onto the napkin so you still have some paint left on your finger, but it isn't a great big glob.
  
  You might want to practice making a few fingerprint marks on a scrap piece of paper to get an idea of how much paint you want on your finger!
• Stamp your finger behind the swan's body to start forming the tail feathers.
• Continue sticking your finger into the paint, dabbing it off a little and stamping it onto the paper to make a beautiful big tail for your swan. 10 to 20 prints should be about right.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Template (swan)      (color)   or   (B&W)

Template (letter s)    (color)   or   (B&W)

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