Hands on - Henna

By drawing around your hands, you can make a template on which to create your own stunning mehndi designs. It's clean and fun and you can try as many different patterns as you like.

Trace your hand

Take a square piece of paper measuring about 15cm by 15cm (or big enough to fit the palm of your hand on!).

With a pencil, carefully trace around your hand. This is your template. You can go over your hand outline with a pen if you want to make it bolder. You're now ready to start designing.

Create your designs

Traditional mehndi art tends to be very fine lines based on pasley, flower of leaf motifs. But there are no strict guidelines and you can draw exactly what you want. Try using plants, animals and abstract shapes like stars or hearts.

Use a pencil to try out your designs first. If you want to make lots of them, either photocopy your hand outline, or draw more outlines on new pieces of paper.

For inspiration, you might want to check out some designs from the websites listed below.

This link to a website called the Henna Page gives lots of free designs for both hands and feet

This website shows many designs from a leading henna artist

Colour your designs

Once you've settled on your design, and have drawn it out fully onto your hand template using a pencil, you can go over the lines to make them permanent.

You can use a brown felt-tip pen or paint or any colour you wish really. You don't have to stick to shades of brown. You can even block in bits of your pattern using pen or paint.

Take note!

If you would like to do real henna painting on your hands, first check with your parents. Bear in mind that henna tattoos stain the skin and can last for several days. Very importantly, avoid black henna. This isn't really true henna, but is a chemical dye known as black henna. It can cause blistering, sores and serious scarring. See our henna pages for more information on this.