Making your own Printing Stamps

To make these little stamps I took some of the textures that I used in my post about rubbings and glued them to scraps of wood. They're a nice comfortable size for a child's hand.

 

1. Rippled paper from a gift box

 

2. The material that onion bags are made from

 

3. Rolls of liners for drawers

 

4. cloth doily

 

5. plastic doily

 

6. strip of plastic from packaging

 

7. I honestly don't know what this is. I picked it up in the sewing section of a craft store. Maybe someone can tell me. Anyway, it's plastic.

 

Printing ink was rolled onto the surfaces with a brayer. This would probably be another good way to make wrapping paper.

Check out my giveaway here.

Christmas Tags

Just added to my shop.

Make Christmas Wrapping Paper

This is a fun printmaking project for this time of the year. I drew the little hats on a sheet of Styrofoam making sure that I could feel the actual impressions made by my pencil. I cut the hats out and rolled printing ink onto the surface with a brayer. After I turned them over on my paper to print I used the back of a spoon to rub the Styrofoam making sure the image transferred. Some of the hats I printed twice before re-inking so that I got a lighter shade of red or a "ghost print".

 

 

Supplies:

 

Sheets of Styrofoam or scratch-foam, scissors, pencil, rubber brayer, roll of butcher block paper.

Printing Christmas Cards

I couldn't resist using printmaking to create some Christmas cards. These are at my Etsy shop and I will have them for sale at a Winter Festival that I am participating in on December 8. I'm also teaching the technique at three workshops at my local library on December 5. Will link to that a little closer to the event. Plus, of course, I'll be mailing them to friends and family.

Sparkle Paints

Making and using your own homemade sparkle paints is almost a form of therapy. It is just so relaxing. I mixed equal parts white flour, salt and water in a large mixing bowl. I had eight plastic squeeze bottles that I filled with the mixture and then added a dollop of acrylic paint to each and shook. I cut out 8x10 rectangles of corrugated cardboard from I box that I picked up at the supermarket. I was ready for my group of eight pre-schoolers. They each started with their own color and I emphasized that they should just keep the bottles moving as they squeezed the paint out so that they didn't end up with a giant puddle. We wound up with some lovely results although they may take a few days to dry!

 

They are called sparkle paints because they glitter once they dry due to the salt. Since I had some leftover paint when I got home I couldn't resist making my own. Once the cardboard was covered with paint I gently moved a fork over the surface to give it that feathery look.

Rubbings

I love to collect textures to make rubbings, but in the past I've always found it to be frustrating for young children. However, by chance I discovered two changes to my usual method that makes it infinitely easier for them. First of all, instead of using a lightweight paper I switched to tracing paper. This way, when they place a texture beneath the paper they are able to see exactly where they should rub. Secondly, I switched from crayons to very soft oil pastels, and as always, I recommend that they use they broad side of the pastel as opposed to the point. The oil pastels are richer and have more "pop" than a traditional crayon.