By The Green Parent
14th February 2023
I’m always making something! As a young girl I snuck paper doilies off the dinner table and hoarded tissue boxes, toilet paper rolls, straws, and the cardboard inserts that came in shirts, stockings, and gloves. Back then, I’d transform my stash into paper plate clocks, and make paper straw necklaces with friends for birthday parties!
Last year I hosted a printed Valentine card class for kids. Before the class, I was afraid that it would be too simple, that there wouldn’t be enough steps or ideas, but since I was teaching a few tiny ones (and it was over Zoom), simple seemed safest. As it turned out, the hour flew by, and when I ended the class, the kids were still going! We focused on printing with items from around the house: potatoes, sponges, and our fingers! When I suggested that the kids could make anything (flowers, butterflies, balloons!) out of their printed and stamped hearts, they were off! A lesson I need, over and over again, not to overcomplicate things!
POTATO STAMPS
To make a potato stamp, slice a bit off one side of a potato to make it flat. Press a cookie cutter in most of the way and then carefully cut around the cutter and slide that part off, leaving a raised heart, for example. Brush a thin layer of paint onto a paper plate and dip until the heart is covered. Press onto the paper. You can use scraps (or cut pieces) to print other shapes, like leaves and stems.
FINGERPRINT HEARTS
We made fingerprint hearts and then turned them into people… and patterns! (By the way, if you like doing fingerprint art, you must check out Ed Emberley’s books if you don’t know them already!)
BALLOON CARDS
To make a balloon, stamp a heart, draw on a knot with a marker, and glue on a piece of string. I used baker’s twine. We also cut up sponges to make stamps. ONE TIP: dampen the sponges to make them easier to cut.
Lastly, if you’d like to make Valentine’s gifts, these techniques work well on fabric (if you print and stamp with acrylic craft paint). supermakeit.com
