If koalas are your favorite, you’ll definitely want to try creating this charming Koala Handprint! These handcrafted cards are incredibly sweet – children will enjoy sharing them with relatives and friends. They’re perfect for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or simply as a fun surprise!
RELATED: Bear Handprint
Besides being delightful cards, they also become precious keepsakes – write your child’s name and the date on the back so you can recall their age when you traced their hand to make this card!
Include a sweet phrase inside or add a heartfelt note.
Try these adorable koala card messages:
- I Love Spending Time With You!
- You’re a Koala-ty Pal!
- You Drive Me Koala-crazy, but You’re the best!
Materials Required
- Cardstock – two shades of gray and black, along with green cardstock or construction paper
- Paint – pink
- Pencil – with an eraser at the tip for stamping the pink cheeks
- Pipe cleaners – brown
- Scissors
- Glue stick and tacky glue – for putting together the koala card. Use the glue stick for attaching the paper pieces and tacky glue for securing the googly eyes.
- Black marker
- Googly eyes – you’ll need 2 for each koala; these measure 20mm
- Printable koala templates – available to receive at the bottom of the post
View the Video Tutorial
How to Create a Koala Handprint
1. Create the card foundation.
Take a sheet of light gray cardstock and fold it in half.
Trace your child’s hand onto the card with a pencil, positioning the outside edge of the pinky directly along the fold, as demonstrated in the image below.
Trim around the pencil outline, making sure not to cut through the fold.
After cutting, the open card should appear like this.
2. Create the koala’s head.
Print and cut out the koala templates after downloading them. The template can be sent to you at the bottom of the post. Alternatively, sketch your own head, ears, and nose.
Trace each shape onto paper, then cut them out. Use black paper for the nose, the same gray as the handprint body for the head and outer ears, and a somewhat paler gray—or light pink—for the inner ears.
Attach the inner ears over the outer ear pieces with glue.
Glue one ear to each side of the koala’s head.
3. Add the facial features.
Position the nose in the middle of the koala’s face and glue it in place.
Attach 2 googly eyes to the head, then draw a tiny mouth connected to the nose with a black marker.
For rosy cheeks, dip the eraser end of a pencil into pink paint. Press a small circle onto each cheek and allow the paint to dry fully.
4. Attach the head to the body.
Spread glue across the back of the koala’s head and attach it
onto the handprint body.
5. Attach the branch.
Trim a brown pipe cleaner to approximately 6″ in length.
Next, cut out tiny green leaves and adhere them to a brown pipe cleaner to create the appearance of a branch. We added 2 leaves to each branch.
Unfold the koala card, then apply tacky glue or hot glue (with adult assistance) to attach the pipe cleaner branch to the fingertips, making it appear as though the koala is gripping the branch.
6. Add a message inside.
Write a note inside the koala card with a marker – we chose “I love hanging with you!”. Another favorite is “You’re a Koala-ty Friend!”.
Complete the card by adding your child’s name and the date to its back.
Find the Template Here
Download the Free Koala Template
Have the free koala handprint template delivered directly to your inbox. You’ll also get our complimentary weekly newsletter.
Already subscribed? No need to worry—you won’t be enrolled twice!
Explore more of our handprint crafts.