Easter Egg Printing

I've been wanting to to try printmaking with my preschooler for awhile now.  After seeing this great  Easter Egg Printing post from The Artful Parent, I thought I'd give styrofoam printing a try.  Styrofoam printing is cheap and doesn't (really) need any special materials.   Sounds great, right?   Today's Easter craft is making these neat Easter Egg Prints with your kiddos.

Egg-cellent Easter Egg Printing!

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Easy Styrofoam and Marker Printmaking with Kids

Do you have styrofoam and markers? Looking for an easy and affordable way to create a “wow” art experience for the kids? Have you tried styrofoam and marker printmaking? We love doing printing activities together and ever since I saw Shelly's IG post sharing how to make prints without printing ink, I was excited to try the activity with my kids too. 

Here’s how we made prints with everyday items around the house.

How to Make Styrofoam and Marker Prints with Kids at Home

Printing with Flowers

Do you have wilting flowers?  Before tossing them away, why not try making some flower prints with them?   Chuck and I dipped flower heads in paint and made some lovely prints.  Then, once the prints dried, I turned them into some personalized, springy stationary.

So don't throw away your Valentine's Day flowers just yet.  Keep them and make some cards! 

Making potato stamps

Remember when I shared with you that my one word for this year was going to be  "try"?  Do you remember me saying that I would push myself to try new things... even when they seemed a bit frightening?

Well, guess what? *Gulp*  I've definitely been trying some new things out. .. and this post describes one of those things.

(You're probably wondering, "What?  Making potato stamps frightens you?  Girl, you gotta get out more...")

Oh no, no, no.  Let me back up.  A couple of months ago my aunt and I signed up to sell crafts at a craft fair.  *Gulp*  To any seasoned crafter, this would be no big deal.  You craft a bunch of stuff and then you sell it.  No biggie, right?

Ha!  It's a biggie because first you have to make a whole bunch of inventory...and second you gotta make sure your inventory is good enough to sell.

I signed up to sell greeting cards.  After reading Elisabeth Harden's kid's book on printing, I think I'm going to try stamping original designs onto my cards.  So I've been playing around with printing.   Here's my first attempt at making stamps out of potatoes:

I took a medium sized potato, cut it in half, and then carved out the design for two stamps.    My potato was super wet when I carved it, so I placed the potatoes (cut side down) on a piece of paper towel to dry them out before using them..  I made a makeshift ink pad by pouring a bit of craft paint onto a flat sponge and rubbing my finger over the sponge to help the paint soak in.  Then, I protected our dining room table by covering it with an old towel (since I didn't have any newspaper.)

All this took place while Baby Chuck napped.  When he awoke, he had a new  activity to try out.

The potatoes worked out as kid stamps... but I don't think they are good enough to decorate my cards.

Oh yeah, here are three big things I learned in the process:  (1)  Unless you're Leonardo DaVinci, you should write your word stamps backwards. No one wants to read mirror image writing.  (2)  Always put a smock on Chuck.  (Craft paint comes out in the wash, right?) (3)  I need to ditch the sponge ink pad and possibly get a craft roller... hmm...

Oh well.  That's what happens when you try new things.  Now... onto our next printing adventure!  (Hopefully I'll figure out something before the big craft show... eekers!)

Easy Printmaking Project for Kiddos: Colorful Initials!

Howdy friends! Today I wanted to just pop in and share this colorful, kid-friendly printmaking project.  I know, it's been awhile since I've shared a printing project here. (I've been shying away from messier projects lately because my youngest has now entered the VERY precocious and active toddler years. Ahhh! )  But, I recently took a printmaking course and was enamored with the whole process.... so I had to try out the process with my eldest.

Let's Print Kid Initials

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DIY Crapted Wrapping paper (Plastic Bag Printing and Cat Stencils) and DIY Washi Tape

Alright, this post's title is rather crazy.  In my defense, I just put everything up there because I couldn't figure out a better way to incorporate all the ideas into one slick title.

Hrmm... let's take a step back and start again.

*Breathes*

My sister's birthday is coming up next week.  I already bought her a gift and thought it would be nice to crapt the wrapping paper.  So, I cut up a paper bag (the kind that you get from a store when you buy stuff) and made these two crapty wrapping paper patterns:

The design on the left was made using this Plastic Bag printing method.  It was inspired by my sister's love of turtles.  (That's what the green blobs are.)

The design on the right is made using cereal box stencils.  It's a bit more modern.  (Psst- Can you tell that it's a bunch of golden cat faces?)

Would you like to see how I printed the patterns?  If so, read on!  If not, you can always eat some ice-cream. Yum.

How to make cat stenciled wrapping paper:

Materials:

• Cereal box
• Pen
• Pencil
• Exacto Knife
• Scissors
• Cutting mat
• Paint
• Sponge brush
• Paper towel

Directions:

1.  Doodle your cat face on a piece of cereal box.  Cut the face out.

2.  To keep your design even, first use a pencil to lightly mark where you want your cat faces.  (I used my stencil as a guide.)  Then, stencil your design over your pencil marks.  When you're stenciling, don't load too much paint onto your sponge brush and keep your hand steady as you hold down the stencil so you don't smudge your design.  If you're worried, you can always do a couple of trial runs on a piece of scrap paper first.

3.  Let your design dry and you're done!  Meow!

How to make a plastic bag printed wrapping paper design:

Materials:

• Sandwich bag
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Q-tip
• Paper Towel

Directions:

1.  "Ink" your plastic bag by painting over a portion of it.  (If you're a clutz like me, only paint in the middle of your bag.  This way your hands won't smear the paint when you flip the bag over.)
2.  Use a Q-tip (or the back of your paint brush) to remove bits of paint and create a design.
3.  Flip your bag around and press the painted side on top of your wrapping paper.  Rub your hand over the design to make sure it transfered.
4. Repeat this step to add other blocks of colors or designs.  (I used the same bag throughout and simply wiped off excess paint with a paper towel.)

You can also paint little shapes onto your bag and then use those to make prints too.

As you can see, I added some turtles and yellow flowers to complete the print.

And since I was already making the wrapping paper, I figured I might as well make fake washi tape out of masking tape.  I simply took pieces of masking tape, stuck them to parchment paper, and then doodled on them with Sharpie markers.  The ends of the tape don't completely adhere to the parchment paper, but that's ok because I used the tape up right away.

Did you make it this far?  Phew.  *High five.*  This was a long post.  Here's a photo of the final product.  (I chose the cat design because it looked cooler.  Plus, my sister really loves her cat.)
 

Here's a photo of the back.  Yurp.  I went crazy with my fake washi tape because the patterns were just too cute.

Happy Thursday!

3 Ways to Make Fruit and Vegetable Prints with Kids

Hey!  Are you going to throw away that shriveled carrot?  Got a few limes rolling around in the fridge and not sure what to do with them?  Then today's post is for you!  Today I'm going to share 3 fun ways to make fruit and vegetable print artwork!  And just to give you a heads up... one of the methods combines art AND science together to create prints that .... MAGICALLY APPEAR when you heat them.  Whoa.....

3 Ways to make Fruit and Vegetable Prints!

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Today several other kid craft-loving bloggers and I are sharing cute and fun crafts involving fruit and vegetable prints.  So scroll down to the bottom of the page for 10 MORE fun and crafty fruit and vegetable print ideas!

Let's get started!

5 Ideas for Learning about the body!

I think last week's Creative Preschool Collaborator's theme of learning about the body was probably my favorite theme yet.  Each of us came up with really different and really creative ways to teach young children about the human body!  Here's a recap of all 5 bloggers' awesome ideas!

5 Ideas for learning about the body!

Postcards

If I worked for West Michigan's tourism bureau, here are some postcards that I might consider printing out:

Who is this random couple?

Perhaps this one is stretching it a bit too far.....

Thanks Tito Ric for the postcard quality photos!

Make Rainbow flowers

Rainbows and bright colors are currently on my mind.  Chuck and I are impatient for spring to come.  So when I stared at our white flowers (leftovers from Valentine's Day- can you believe they lived that long?) I knew the perfect "almost-spring-but-not-yet" craft.  Painting rainbow flowers!  
 

Heh heh.  We couldn't wait for Mother Nature to give us colorful blooms, so we painted our own.  Keep reading to see a super easy way to make your own rainbow flowers!

Make Monster Sculptures with kids!

Looking for a fun Halloween activity for preschoolers?  

Why not set up a monster-making factory in your dining room?  Yup.  This fun art and craft activity is a great way for kids to be creative and gear up for the upcoming holidays.  (Hooray Halloween!  Woo-hoo!)

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Living in Southern California, I have a tough time appreciating seasons.  I mean, we’re still in the 70s-80s here.  The leaves are green…. I'm still wearing shorts and sandals.  It just doesn’t quite feel like fall.  So this monster-making activity really helped us get into the fall spirit.

Create Abstract Art with Kids

Chuck and I enjoy painting... well... just about anything.  Give this kid a brush and paint and he's good to go.  I love making art with the little guy and that's why I'm always on the look out for new ways to paint.  That's why this easy abstract painting tutorial on the awesome blog Create Art with Mel really appealed to me.  You simply use a common household item to create interesting abstract art.  Care to guess what the item is?   

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Our 30+ Favorite Flower and Plant Art + Craft Projects (and books!)

Love flowers?  Well, today I'm in kind of a flowery mood.  I've got a couple of flower crafts that I'd like to try once we all start feeling better.  So until then, I've scoured the blog for our favorite flower and plant project ideas  in case you're in a flowery, springy mood too!

Our 30+ Favorite Flower and Plant Projects

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Make Coffee Filter Flowers

Today we're continuing our spring flower theme with these easy to make coffee filter flowers.  Now I'm not a coffee drinker, but I bought a pack of filters anyway because I really wanted to try making these with Chuck.  He had a lot of fun helping me to dye the coffee filters different colors with food coloring.  Then, I had a lot of fun cutting them up and turning them into a lovely and everlasting bouquet of colorful flowers.

Do you need a colorful boost today?  Or do you need a quick and fun activity to do with your kids?  Why not try your hand at making a lovely bouquet of coffee filter flowers too?

Cherry Blossom Tissue Paper Flower Craft (Tree printable included!)

I know, it's a little early for cherry blossoms crafts.  But this mama is seriously over winter.  Buh-bye!  With yet another snow storm scheduled to come tomorrow, this tissue paper cherry blossom tree craft is my attempt to kick winter in the face.  Hiyah! 

Ahh, cherry blossoms... so beautiful... so springy...

Like the tree?  You can use it for your kids' crafts too!  I turned my painting into a pdf so you can just download it and print it out....

Colorful Flip Flop Artwork

We love, love, LOVE easy kid art ideas.  While dreaming of warm, sunny, summer weather, my preschooler and I channeled some good-time summer vibes with this super cute and fun colorful flip flop artwork!

Colorful Flip Flop Artwork  

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How to do Flower Pounding

Happy Earth Day everyone!  How's the weather where you are?  It's slowly getting warmer and sunnier over here, so Chuck and I have been taking nature walks around our neighborhood.  I was surprised to see so many tiny flowers blooming.  (Nature is so resilient, isn't she?)  Chuck really loved seeing the colorful blossoms too.  We ended up picking quite a few and bringing them back to do some flower pounding. 

How to do Flower Pounding With Kids

This craft basically involves hitting flowers (or grass or leaves) with a hammer or rock to release their pigment.  As you can probably guess, it was a big hit with the little guy.  (Sorry downstairs neighbors!)  Keep reading to see how we pounded our flowers!

Paper Cup Flower Heads

Well, the title pretty much says it all!  These paper cup flower heads would make such a great Spring Craft or Mother's Day Craft.  All you need to make them are plain paper cups, a bunch of lovely flowers, and some markers!

Paper Cup Flower Heads

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Easy Kids' Art: Lego Stamping (and some great STEAM books!)

Have you ever tried making art with lego?  

Easy Kids' Art:  Lego Stamping

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