Cat Paw Prints Framed

My cats are my world.  I would never abandon them.. even if I was moving, they were sick (see previous posts), or for any reason really.  They are getting older so I've been thinking more about ways to enjoy them and be able to remember them.  Sooooo I started thinking about making their paw prints into cute art.  I looked all over the internet to find out how.  Pinterest and blogs all gave some great advice.  All the posts I saw were for dogs and the paw prints always looked perfect.  That certainly was not the case.

I got my supplies together first.  I ran by IKEA the other day and picked up some frames (I can't find the frames on their website... they have them in stores only $2.99) and then I went ahead and grabbed some popsicle prints that were .99 cents that are supposed to go in the 2.99 frames (found here). Honestly those .99 cent prints were way cheaper then any card board stock I could find in a store.  I then went by Michaels and bought some paint and stickers.  Then paint was $1.69 Crayola Brand Washable Kids' Paint. You want your paint to be washable and you want it to be nontoxic.  Believe me!  The paint will get everywhere (so you want it washable) and your cat will lick their paws even after you wash their paws so you want to make sure it is nontoxic.  I did see some people use acrylic paint but I was worried about using that. The stickers were in the scrapbook section and were $4.99 but I used the Michaels' app and got 50% off those.  I have horrible handwriting so that's why I used stickers.  If you have nice handwriting maybe paint their names on the print.

Supplies:

Frames

Strong Paper for the art work (card stock)

Paint

Cat

Paper towels

Scratch Paper to practice

Get ready to begin.  Corral your cat into the location you want to do this.  Don't do it on carpet. I brought in a tray thinking I was going to have them stand on it to get the print but I found it easier to just have Merry and Pippin lay down and hold the paper up to their foot once the paint is on it.  Also... originally I had painted his entire foot. Don't do this.  Try to use a paint brush and only get the paint on the paw pads and none on the fur. If you do get a lot of it on their fur you may end up with a blob of paint rather then a paw print.  There were five of the popsicle prints from IKEA so I only had five shots at getting a good print so I practiced some.

Merry

Trying out a few paw prints on scratch paper

Chose your favorite paw print

Pippin wants out of the bathroom!

After you push their paws onto the paper get their paws washed off right away.  Not only so the paint doesn't get everywhere, but also so they don't have a chance to lick their paws. I have no idea how people get a perfect paw print.  I did read some people were using ink pads but I like the look of paint better.  The advice for this project I can give you is have fun and don't worry about perfection.  I do believe that cat paws are going to be harder then dog paws because they are smaller.  Luckily my cats are short hair too because cats with long fur in their paws might be messy to wash off!