Golden Footprint notebook

Make yourself a special notebook (maybe to write down your baby's journey) or offer your family / friends a very special keepsake of your baby.
If you already have a diary or notebook where you wrote your journey during the pregnancy, cover your notebook with black paper, and make the imprints on the paper.
And if your baby already died, read how to make a notebook with footprints you already have.

Material:

If your baby has not been born yet prepare the following:

• Clear embossing pad
• Embossing powder gold
• Small black notebook (I did use a Moleskine Ruled Cahier Journal – Black – Pocket, they work fine because the cover doesn't fear the heat of the gun )
• a sheet of paper
• a small brush to make small corrections
• heat gun

How to proceed:

You may want to "exercise" on cheap black cards or paper at first and use your notebook only once you successfully finished a few nice imprints.
Take the clear embossing pad and make sure that there is "ink" all over your baby's little foot. Then take a notebook and press the foot firmly in the middle of the card.
Try not to rock the foot (which will result in a blurred image).
Apply embossing powder immediately. Pour a generous amount of embossing powder all over the image.
Turn the notebook over and tap the back of it to remove any excess embossing powder on a sheet of paper, then pour the powder back in its pot.
If you don't like the print at all, remove all the powder with a brush, let dry the ink and start again.
If there are just a few little imperfections, take a small brush and remove slightly the powder where it shouldn't be.
Wash your baby's foot with some warm water and a little soap, dry well.
Take your heat gun and aim it at one area of the powdered image. The heat will affect the powder: it will change colour, become shiny or sparkly (depending on what powder you have used). As soon as one area has changed colour, move your heat gun to the next area and so on.

If your baby already died, but you have his footprint proceed as following to make your special notebook:

Material:

• Your baby's footprint
• Photocopier or scanner
• Sheets of paper
• Small scissors
• Self-adhesive tape
• Emboss pen
• Black notebook
• Embossing powder gold
• Heat gun

How to proceed:

	Make a copy of your baby's footprint.
	With a very small pair of scissors, cut out the footprint in order to make a stencil.
	With two small pieces of self-adhesive tape, fix the stencil on the notebook. Colour the footprint with the emboss pen.
	Apply embossing powder immediately. Pour a generous amount of embossing powder all over the image. Turn the notebook over and tap the back of it to remove any excess embossing powder on a sheet of paper, then pour the powder back in its pot.
	Remove the stencil. Take your heat gun and aim it at one area of the powdered image. The heat will affect the powder: it will change colour, become shiny or sparkly (depending on what powder you have used). As soon as one area has changed colour, move your heat gun to the next area and so on.

I don't have a special heat gun but use my husband's paint-stripping gun on low power.
If you don't have a heat gun, bladerrubberstamps recommands: heat from below: wave the cardstock over an electric hotplate, or turn an electric toaster on and wave the card over the opening. Mind your fingers (and if using a toaster, do NOT place the card inside it!) If the card is a little wavy/distorted after heating, allow it to cool down and weigh under some heavy books - it will flatten again.


With the same procedure you can also make other keepsakes. For example an unique Christmas-card with Isaiah 9.6:
"For to us a child has come"

Share your ideas with us, e-mail me a picture and I'll publish it on this page.

Last updated Mai 1, 2019