We're always on the lookout for new creative ideas to add to our little one's lives. We love the look of this thumb print guest book, although it was used for a wedding (and a fabulous one at that) we think the look is perfect for your next baby shower or as wall art in your nursery. A few more ideas are after the jump!
We really love the idea of little individual leaves. We also think it could be a neat thing to keep from year to year for your child, letting invited attendees to birthday parties stamp their fingers to leave their mark on the day. Keep the same "tree" from year to year, just add to it as you go, alter colors if you wish, just make sure to date one or two so you know where it stops.
It's a great way to document all those who come see a newborn upon it's first few weeks of arrival. As family and friends pour into your home, have them stamp their finger to show their support for your little one. By the time their old enough to understand they'll have a lush, full tree, or even a forest! What a cool family heirloom.
We'll also take this time to note, that birds can be created from a single thumb print (just draw on the beak, eye and feet) and would also be cute on a telephone wire as wall art!
(via: Green Wedding Shoes)
(Image: Taryn Kent Photography)

White Enamel Flatwa...
Incredibly creative! I will be stealing this idea for certain!
too cute!
My school used to do these for everyone who retired from it. What a great memento.
That's very cute! But after watching my daughter play with stamps and inkpads this morning, a reminder to anyone who does this: keep some wet wipes nearby so people aren't wandering around with inky fingers after. Sometimes it never really dries (as my clothes today will attest).
office max sells fingerprint ink that does not stain. (you rub your fingers together & it disappears I believe) but i am not sure what colors it comes in other than black.
It should come in red and blue, usually intended for banks to use! Great suggestion!
My cousin and I did a thumb print tree for a family member's baby shower. LOTS of leaves in different color greens, then we did two blue birds for ours to stand out so that it was our signature as a gift from us. Everyone raved about it! (suggestion is that you take a scrap piece of paper for the ink to be blotted on, we found that the second printing of the ink on your thumb was the best).We are also going to duplicate this in Autumn colors for another family wedding coming up. Really easy and great gift. Make sure that everyone also signs their own thumb print...
baby wipes are also really good to clean up and easy to tote.
such a cute idea .....
GREAT IDEA! i love it totally going to steal it for my wedding...which will come... eventually... yep, any day now...
Just found this on etsy! Love the options the seller has available...
http://www.etsy.com/listing/45138495/baby-shower-fingerprint-tree
I'm not sure what's going on, but all of these "fake" comments from people with advertisements is very annoying and makes me want to quit reading the comments on this blog. This is one of my favorites, but it's getting bad lately-any way to get a handle on this?
@gunnarsmom, the ApartmentTherapy tech team is working on some features that should help us catch fake comments faster. Please bear with us in the mean time.
Found another site to buy it.
http://thumbprintguestbooks.com/
I got one and it was delivered fast. Good quality paper also.
We had one of these for our wedding, and we love it! The only thing is that some of our guests (::cough, groomsmen::) refused to put their prints on branches and put them on the "ground," so it's not as full as it could have been. Still, we love it as a displayable piece in our home.
Did this for my wedding also (2 days ago). I painted my own branches and tree, with cheap acrylic paint and brushes on a poster board. Be sure to use the matte side of the poster board. I used sharpie pens for the signatures. We had about 60 guests and I didn't count the number of branches I made, thus the sparseness of our tree. Grandma and grandpa helped with my son's fingerprint. I had Wetones on hand for wiping away the ink (though there were many light green thumbs at my reception). The craft store had a bottle of gentle ink remover next to the inkpads but it was very expensive for such a tiny bottle. There is, of course, washable ink pads for the little ones, but you'd have to frame your prints right away to avoid any accidental sippy cup/bottle spray or random rain/plumbing problems if you're looking to keep it forever.
Here is the original tree and the wedding tree guest sign in poster.
When my son was born, I bought an inexpensive ABC book. For many years, I would ask family and friends to sign their name in the front of the book, and then pick several letters of the alphabet, writing a word that started with that letter on that page. I still love to read through and see what people came up with. I have sports teams, bands, silly words, etc. And someday it will be a great gift for my son.
That's a neat idea that could be used in a lot of different ways. I teach kindergarten, and I'm thinking this could be something cute for the kids' scrapbooks. We do a lot of fingerprint art, but it's individual. I like the idea of a group piece like this.
Ahem--
"By the time they're old enough..."
I made one for Thanksgiving last year and I LOVE IT. It's hanging on the wall in my dining room.