It took me quite a few weeks to accomplish all the preparations for Geneva’s Ballerina Birthday Party, but one of the most fun decorations we made was this artwork! We displayed it at the party and at the end I gave out tutorials on how to make the project to the mommies. This is such a special keepsake if you have a little ballerina in the house, and Geneva and I had a blast making it together.

1. Gather all your supplies and your super cute helper!

For this project you will need:

1 canvas, pink paint in two tones, paintbrush, pink scrapbook paper, scissors, glue, coordinating ribbon and any embellishments you want to add. We had everything around our house except for the canvas, which I picked up at Michael’s for 50% off.

2.  Fold a white piece of paper in half (hot dog style) and draw half of leotard shape (length-wise).  Cut this out, open it up and you should have a symmetrical leotard shape.
3.  Trace that shape onto your pink paper and cut it out.  Glue to the top 2/3 of the canvas and let it dry.

4.  Turn the canvas upside down. Paint your daughter’s hands with the light pink paint and place them on the canvas around the leotard to create a full tutu effect.  For a nice rounded tutu effect you’ll want to use the left hand for two handprints on the right side of the upside down canvas and the right hand for the left side. (tip:  if you are using a pre-stretched canvas, you may want to place a book under the area of canvas where your daughter will be placing her handprints to avoid her denting or pushing through the canvas.)

This part is messy but FUN!

5. Have your daughter wash her hands while you’re waiting for the handprints to dry. Then paint her hands with the darker pink paint and make two more handprints on top of the light pink handprints in a darker pink shade.  Allow these to dry.

Geneva mentioned she wanted to put flutter sleeves on her painting because the uniform leotard she wears in ballet class has sleeves. What a great idea! So we repeated the painting process using her fingertips for the sleeves. I love how the addition turned out! So don’t shy away from making this personal.

6. Glue a section of pink ribbon around the waist of the tutu.  Tuck and glue under the sides at the waist to give a nice, finished look. Make a simple bow out of the ribbon and glue it at the waist.

7. Add other embellishments of your own to the leotard and tutu (rhinestones, pearls, make and glue a smaller bow to the neck of your leotard, etc.) We added a little bit of sparkle, using some ribbon I had in the house, because what little dancer doesn’t like that? You can also give it a quick spray outside with aerosol modge podge if you have it.

8. Have your ballerina sign and date it at the bottom with permanent marker (or if she insists, you can sign it for her, since you’re writing is “fancier.”) haha.

9. Voila!! Now you can hang it up in her room and admire her handiwork!