Make a Valentine’s Day plaster cast of your baby’s footprint

Making a plaster cast of your baby’s footprint is low hanging gift fruit for DIY type Dads.  It’s messy, simple, fun, involves the family and your wife will love it.  You can make a plaster cast of your baby’s footprint anytime, but if you do it around Valentine’s Day it can be done easier and more individualistic. 

Things you’ll need

• Plaster
• Valentine’s Day heart shaped box of candy
• A mixing container
• Utility tool
• String or ribbon

1.  Eat the Valentine’s Day candy from the box.  This is a tasty and necessary step that must be done first because the top from the heart shaped candy box will be the mold for the plaster cast.

2.  Cut a line in the lid of the Valentine’s Day box of candy where the string will hang it on the wall from.    Hint:  for added impact, use colored ribbon; ladies love it much more than plain string.

3.  Pour some dry plaster into your mixing container.  Start with not enough plaster mix and then add water to mix it together.  Estimate the size of the Valentine’s Day candy relative to how much wet plaster mix you have in your container.

4.  Pour the wet plaster mix into the lid of the heart shaped Valentine’s Day candy box.  Make certain that the string or ribbon is flat and entirely covered by the plaster.

5.  Get your baby close; try to ensure that they are sleepy or sleeping.

6.  Take one of their feet and put it into the plaster.  Be sure to have lots of clean rags to wipe their foot after you place it in the plaster.  A couple of the rags will have to be wet and warm water will do a better job than cold water.

7.  Immediately take the cast out of the crib and use a Precision Phillips Head Screwdriver to write their name and date.  If you use any utensil other than a small Phillips Head Screwdriver the blade will collect plaster and write very sloppily.  You’ll need to clean the grooves of the Phillips Head Screwdriver, but it will write relatively clearly.

8.  Place the plaster cast of your baby’s footprint in a safe area to dry.

Hint:  When purchasing the Valentine’s Day candy be certain that the packaging is plastic and not cardboard.  Cardboard will stick to the wet plaster, but the plaster cast will easily pop out of the plastic mold.