DIY Pet Paw Print Personalized Wall Art: Easy as Ink, Stamp,Write, and Frame!

Personalized home decor is the best. And it’s even better when it highlights one of your family members. Nothing better than a DIY pet paw print!

For an office recently-turned guest room, my partner’s parent’s house had a wall that needed some warmth and personalization. Since his mom has 3 adorable dogs who are definitely part of the family, I thought it would be great to decorate the space with their paw prints.

This DIY turned out to be easier than I originally thought! It looks modern and chic, and with just a few supplies, it was a lot of fun to create.

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Supplies:

• • • Clipboard for a firm surface below your dogs paw to stamp against
    • Pet treats. Lots and lots of treats.
    • Baby wipes or wet paper towel to clean their paws
    • Picture frames. These can be dollar store frames, ones you already own, super-fancy ones, or you can just have amazon ship it to your door; any that work with your home decor will work with this project. They should be big enough for your pets paw print to fit. Since these are smaller dogs, I chose to not only use the mat, but also to write their names inside the mat.

 

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Instructions for DIY pet paw print with Photo-cuteness:

1. Gather your supplies. Clamp your cardstock paper onto the clipboard, grab your ink pad, treats, and baby wipes, and bring your pup outside. I recommend doing this outside so you don’t get ink on your carpet, floors, walls, etc. When working with animals, you’ll want to have all of your supplies nearby so that it’s a quick stamp onto the paper.

I also brought extra paper with me in case the first prints smudged or didn’t stamp completely.
2. Pick your pets paw and guide it to the ink pad. Press it gently into the ink pad multiple times. Check to ensure each paw pad is thoroughly inked.

You know your dog and how well they sit for brushing, treats, etc. If you make this a pleasant experience for them, they’ll give you a good paw print.

3. Quickly grab your clipboard with paper and press the inked paw onto the paper. If it looks good, use a baby wipe to clean your pets paw. Don’t forget to give more treats!

If you have more than one pet, I would recommend having only one outside with you at a time. The other dogs kept getting between the inked paw and the paper! They love attention, don’t they, ha ha! Make sure to mark which paw print belongs to who. I used post-it notes, but a pen mark in an inconspicuous corner will also work.

Remember the paw prints don’t need to be perfect. If it looks sorta like a paw print, it will look adorable in the frame.

4. Once everyone is clean and given treats, any paw prints on the driveway are cleaned (water-soluble ink!), and once you bring your papers and ink pads inside, it’s time to write your pet’s name on the sheet!

• Do you love to write in calligraphy and have beautiful handwriting? Great! Size it and make it beautiful! Or here is the beginner set I use and love.

• If not, there is a way to fake it for this quick project. Stampin Write markers are perfect for this, as you can get a thin line AND the thick line that give calligraphy that gorgeous look.
• I practiced writing out each name on regular lined paper using a pencil. Writing in cursive isn’t something most of us do very often, so it took me a few times trying to get the spacing right. After you’ve written it in pencil, go over it with your brush pens. Practice until you are comfortable.

For beautiful lettering using your brush markers, go light on upstrokes and heavier on downstrokes.

• When you are ready, write it in normal cursive in pencil below your puppy paw print, then go over it with a thin marker. Go back and thicken up the downstrokes. Check out pinterest (maybe the board I created for hand lettering) or this site that’ll go over some calligraphy basics.

5. Lastly, frame your new paw print creation!

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I hope this was helpful. Thanks for checking out this tutorial! It’s super-easy to do, and it’s always fun playing with the dogs.
Not only do these works of art look good on the wall, but I think they are also a great way to keep our pets in our hearts, now and long after they pass. If you need pet sympathy cards, please check out my Etsy shop. There are currently card sets for dog owners and card sets for cat owners.

Looking for other projects for pet lovers? Check out this tutorial to make an interactive card with a Kitty Celebrating the Best Day Ever!

Where do you think you’ll hang your pets paw print? Let me know in the comments below! Will you paint the frame to match your home? If you have any questions, feel free to email me at laurascraftcloset@gmail.com! I love hearing from my crafty readers.

Happy Crafting!