The Best New Parent Gifts

Your teen comes up to you and asks if they can borrow the car. It’s a typical Friday night. You remind them of their curfew and watch them pull out of the driveway. You look at your spouse and say, “Remember how little they used to be?” 

Every parent has done this. Whether their baby is taking their first steps or driving away to college, parents can’t believe how quickly their little ones grow up. While many of us enjoy looking back at pictures to see just how little our babies were, those aren’t the only keepsakes worth creating! 

At Casting Keepsakes, we offer our brand of baby feet and hand casting kits that allow parents to easily create detailed, 3D plaster casts of their baby’s cute little feet and tiny hands. We also have these available in larger sizes for children and adults so the entire family can be involved. While many of our customers buy our casting kits to use for themselves, it is also one of the best gifts for new parents or new grandparents! 

Casting Keepsakes is thrilled to offer 3D casting kits from our very first brand, Luna Bean. Luna Bean is a safe, easy-to-use, DIY hand and foot casting system that allows you to create highly detailed sculptures of your — or your baby’s — hands and feet.  

We know that whether you are using our products with your own baby or you are gifting it to a new parent so that they can create an amazing baby keepsake, safety is of the utmost importance. You can rest easy knowing that our molding material, Create-A-Mold, is non-toxic and not known to cause any kind of reaction when used in direct contact with skin. The molding powder we use, potassium alginate, is even regulated by the FDA as a food product. 

Our Baby Hand and Feet Casting Kits

Luna Bean Infant Plaster Casting Kit

The original infant foot and hand casting kit comes with the ingredients needed to make two complete 3D castings. That means you can do two hands, two feet, or one of each! This kit is perfect for babies under 9 months of age and expertly captures all of the wrinkles and folds on their squishy little hands and feet. 

This kit includes molding powder, casting stone, a reusable container, a mixing spoon, a paintbrush, your choice of finish (clear matte, clear glaze, pearl, bronze, silver, or gold), sanding paper to smooth out the finished piece, a detailing pin, and instructions on how to use all of the above. 

If you are looking for a sentimental and affordable gift for new parents, this is a great option. 

Luna Bean Deluxe Baby Casting Kit

This is a larger version of our original kit. This baby hand and foot mold kit includes enough product to make seven keepsakes. This is perfect when thinking of gifts for grandparents so that everyone can have their own keepsake. This kit even allows you to make a cute mold of your baby’s little bottom! (Talk about a unique Christmas tree ornament!)

Of course, you can use the kit to make seven feet molds, seven hand molds, or even seven bottom molds if you choose! This is also a good option for people wanting to make paw molds of all of their beloved pets. 

Luna Bean Baby Love Keepsake Bundle Pack

This unique 3D hand casting kit actually comes with two complete kits: one to make a casting of baby’s hands or feet and one to make a casting of adult hands. This gives you the ability to create a sculpture of mom or dad (or both!) holding the little one in their hands. It’s a great way to show how truly tiny our babies are! 

Other Baby Keepsakes

While casting kits make great gifts for new parents or grandparents, you can also choose an air-dry clay keepsake that you can use to make handprint and footprint ornaments. 

Guide for Giving Gifts to New Parents

Whether your friend has recently had a baby or your wife is due to pop any day now, deciding what gift to give to a new parent takes a lot of thought and consideration. There are even some unspoken “rules” about gift-giving, but with a unique option like a baby hand and feet casting kit, you really can’t go wrong. It’s a thoughtful and affordable option that gives new parents a keepsake that will last forever. That said, keep in mind the following when considering gift ideas for new parents.

If there is a registry, use it. 

While we always encourage gift-giving of any type, if the new parents have a gift registry, it is common courtesy to get them something off of the registry. Having a baby is stressful and expensive, and if you can save the parents a small hassle by buying them bottles, pacifiers, or diapers, then do that. That said, feel free to gift new parents something sentimental in addition to what you purchase from the registry.

Include gift receipts for non-sentimental items. 

Maybe the new baby will be on the chubby side and won’t fit in those newborn diapers. Maybe someone double-gifted an item the parents only need one of. These things happen, so be sure to include a gift receipt with any non-sentimental items so the parents can return what they don’t need. 

Consider long-lasting gifts. 

Flowers are nice, but they’ll be wilted before you know it. A stuffed animal, if it is even used, will likely end up sitting in a closet for a few years before it is thrown away or donated. If you’re choosing to gift the new parents something sentimental rather than something practical, choose a gift that will last a lifetime, as well as something that the parents will be proud to display. 

 

 

Choose something they won’t think to buy themselves. 

Many new, tired parents look at a highly detailed baby hand or foot mold and think, “That’s nice, but who has the time or patience to do that with a newborn?” Thankfully, these 3D casts only look like that were expertly sculpted by Michelangelo himself. In reality, it takes five minutes to read through the directions, a few minutes to clear off a clean space on the kitchen counter or dinner table, thirty seconds or so to mix the molding powder, and two minutes of keeping the baby’s hand submerged in the molding liquid. It’s a simple task that will give the parents a keepsake that they will cherish forever. 

If you really want to give an amazing gift — and get some newborn baby cuddles — volunteer to be the “project manager” of this art project! 

Casting Keepsakes is a homegrown company. As parents ourselves, we understand how special it is to have a treasured keepsake to hold on to. We have perfected our formula to be efficient, easy-to-use, and safe. When we say that this provides you with a “lifelike” 3D casting, we truly mean it. Our molding material captures every line, wrinkle, and roll that makes your baby so special. Read on to learn about a few features that make our baby hand casting kits stand out. 

Safe for Babies

We know safety is important whenever doing anything involving babies! As we mentioned earlier, the molding material used in our baby hand and feet casting kits is non-toxic, hypo-allergenic, and designed for direct use with skin. The baby is only involved in the molding process and does not need to come into contact with the plaster. You can take a look at the MSDS (material safety data sheets) document for our molding product here.

With all of that said, do be careful when mixing the mold, as dust can occur when pouring the molding powder out of the bag. While the dust is not harmful, it can be unpleasant if inhaled. Just pour and mix your products slowly!

Wiggle-Proof Formula

Babies are great at being adorable. They have that in the bag. That said, they are very, very bad at sitting still. Our infant hand and feet casting kits are wiggle-proof and only involve the baby for less than two minutes. That means even wiggly, fussy babies can use this kit!

Because of our unique formula, the molding solution will remain in a liquid state until, all at once, it solidifies in just 5-10 seconds. This means that even if a baby is wiggling his fingers or toes inside of the mold, it should still come out looking spectacular. 

Quick and Easy

As we just mentioned, the baby molding kits we offer at Casting Keepsakes only require the baby for a few minutes, meaning this process is quick and easy. You can have a beautiful keepsake without spending all afternoon working on it, making it a great gift for new parents who are already so busy. 

Practically Fool-Proof

We say “practically” because, obviously, things can go wrong. That said, if you follow the directions to a T, you should get amazing results. Our quick-setting kits are designed to handle wiggling toes and slight movements and still create a high-quality product. If you do happen to have an issue with your finished product, send us a message and let us know so we can help!

What Parents Are Saying About Our Baby Casting Kits

We can tell you all day how nice of a gift our 3D casting kits make for new parents, but let’s let some fellow parents tell you instead. Check out these reviews from our 3D casting kits: 

• “This was so fun. My husband held the baby and I did all the mixing and rushing. It turned out great in spite of baby moving the whole time and twitching his fingers and toes. What a cool thing. I want another!” - Lina

• “The detail in the sculpture is so impressive - we are very excited to have this keepsake of our little one forever.” - Rachael

• “This product set up quickly. We messed up and didn’t get the foot in quick enough the first time but the second time went great. We waited until our baby was in deep sleep - never phased her a bit for us to stick her foot in the plaster. Will be doing her hand next. Love love love having this keepsake!” - Tiffany

We love Tiffany’s honest review! Many of our reviews swear that if you follow the directions, you will get a beautiful, detailed 3D hand or foot mold. We encourage all of our customers to closely read the directions before you start mixing the product because the molding liquid stabilizes so quickly. It is also a good idea to have a back-up person there to help, especially when working with babies! So, if you are doing this as a secret gift for Mom or Dad and can’t have two parents involved in the process, it is best to invite a friend or grandparent over to help! 

If you have friends or siblings who have a new bundle of joy in the family, or if you yourself are a new parent, then you can’t go wrong with a Casting Keepsake. Our baby hand molding kits and baby feet molding kits allow parents to capture the essence of their newborn and have a visual object that demonstrates just how tiny and precious their little ones once were. 

Order a DIY baby hand and foot casting kit and other gifts for new parents from Casting Keepsakes today!