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Printmaking is one of the most rewarding crafts that you can do with kids.
It allows them to use multiple art materials to express themselves and document their work. There are numerous things that you can do with kids, from making art cards for birthdays or postcards for sending out their work.
Printmaking is a fun and exciting art form that not only teaches visual skills, but also helps to build confidence in children.
Creating unique and colorful patterns and illustrations with the help of prints is an interesting activity, one which helps children build their visual skills at an early age.
But have you ever wondered about how to introduce printmaking to children? Kids love to experiment and your home is the best place to undertake such experiments.
In this blog post, we will look at some fun tasks and activities that kids can do to learn printmaking.
Got Muffin Tins Stashed Away? Teach Your Kids To Make These Impressive Muffin Prints!
Image Source: Pixabay
Help your little ones see the world in a different way with colorful, abstract patterns. All you need would be a tin of paint, paper, and your muffin tins.
Have your kids turn the muffin tin upside down and paint the bottom of the cup with their choice of colors.
Alternatively, have them dip the muffin tins into a tray of paint and stamp the muffin tin to make print designs on the paper.
For a more even application of paint, they can use interesting brush strokes that transfer to the finished print.
You can push the paper down by hand and lift it up to show a new print, or rub it around and paint it over with a brush.
Printmaking With Veggies – Make Floral Designs With Okra
Image Source: Pixabay
How about making some prints with veggies? While any vegetable of your choice can work, let us consider okra for this experiment.
Okra is one of the vegetables that kids can use to create a multitude of patterns.
You need two or three pieces of okra, ink stamp pads in multi-colors, and some large pieces of plain paper to get started. You can get an impression of the okra design or pattern by simply pushing down firmly into the ink.
As all okra are different, the shape and texture of your flower will be unique. It’s important that your hands are completely clean when doing this activity (i.e. no messy prints, please!).
Paint and Soap Bubbles Prints- This One Is Such a Delight!
Children can create bubble prints by blowing colored bubbles, capturing their shapes and patterns in paint.
As the soap film evaporates from the colored bubbles, they will connect and reveal a secondary pattern. Soaps are nonreactive molecules because they are hydrophobic, or soluble in lipids as opposed to water.
When two different types of soap molecules are mixed together within a boundary (i.e., hydrophilic vs. hydrophobic), they form spherical micelles, or clusters.
This technique is not limited to water — we can use other liquids. For example, we can blow colored bubbles in perfume, soaps or oils to capture their intricate shapes.
Get Creative with Newspaper Printmaking
Image Source: Pixabay
With printmaking kids can create a range of crafts that encourages creative play through three main activities; painting, drawing, and coloring, and includes a set of dabbers for creating different textures.
Simply scrunch up newspapers, twist them around and tape them together to make a great paint dabber! Paint on paper, cork, card stock, or whatever you wish and watch as this fabulous dabber creates unique paint art.
Children can create a flower or abstract patterns, by scrunching up the newspaper dabbers and twisting them together to make a handle. You only need a couple of newspapers and paint colors of your choice, and that’s about it.
Convert Your Plastic Containers Into Beautiful Prints
Image Source: Pixabay
Teach your kids to recycle plastic containers from a variety of sources and get creative! They can make some make wonderful printing stamps.
What You’ll need:
A selection of containers and trays with various textures, patterns and bottoms.
Some paint and a paint bucket or container.
A few rollers and paintbrushes.
Sheets of paper
Wet cloth for cleaning up paint drips.
Look for containers with textured bottoms – you’ll be amazed by the range of interesting prints you can get. First, find some containers that have interesting bottoms.
Look for trays with different shaped indents, containers with ridges or lines, and even little containers like yogurt and ice-cream tubs that make interesting prints.
Paint the bottoms of these containers with a variety of colors. Try using rollers or paintbrushes to make imprints on large sheets of paper.
The Floating Chalk-and-Water Designs Would Be Great For Your Christmas Card!
A fun and easy art project to get your kids involved in coloring outside the box – literally. You only need a few colorful pieces of chalk and water- and you’re good to go!
Fill your tub up with water. Then gently sprinkle some colored chalk onto the surface of the water.
Place a piece of paper over the top of the tub, using your hands press gently all over where you want to print your design.
Spruce up rooms with Bolts-and-Screws Prints
Image Source: Pixabay
Put together an art print made with nuts and bolts. Blocks of color or patterns can be combined in endless ways to create a vibrant work of art. It can also be used to make brightly patterned bags and cushions.
These screw art prints on paper bring an interesting twist to the plain and simple layout of your living room, bedroom, or office. You can teach your kids to make creative designs, you could choose different words such as “Care” or “World Peace” to accentuate someone’s personality.
With its various shapes and colors in our multi-pattern screw art prints on paper, you will never have a boring room again.
Glue Gun Prints
If you’ve been having trouble with patterns, or looking for a new way to get out of a creative rut, I recommend trying out hot glue. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a quick and fun medium to work with that will help you create unique stencils, masks and stamps.
Use the hot glue gun to create durable plastic stencils by doodling interesting designs onto a Teflon sheet.
Turn your kids’ art projects into spectacular creations with this unique craft tool!
You can use these for mixed media work as well. Not only that, you can use them in oil paintings and other home decor items.
Potato Masher Prints(Yes, You Heard That Right!)
Image Source: Pixabay
Your creativity is the only thing that limits you. Use a potato masher to make colorful prints on paper to create your own masterpiece.
A potato masher leaves patterns on paper just like a typewriter, but adds an awesomely random, organic touch.
The potato masher is made of aluminum or other material with a fun geometric design. It allows you to apply paint or dye for different effects and colors.
It’s a great tool that will help you explore how dye can behave when it’s pressed into paper with this tool.
Use Rolling Pins to Printmake Gift Wrappers
This is a great way to personalize gifts or to add to your decor.
It will require some effort, but in the end – your presents will be unlike anything else out there. What you’ll need is craft foam, spray glue, paper, tape, block printing ink, rubber bands, scissors and rolling pins.
Begin by covering your rolling pins in paper. You can even use textured paper if you like it so much or you can cut paper into interesting and original shapes.
Now, you can grab your ink and roll your rolling pin on it. Make some unique wrapping paper for your next gift! Try using different designs, colors, and materials such as rubber bands while making the pattern with your rolling pin.
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If you want to find information, tips and tricks, or products related to any aspect of printmaking then here’s the place! We have hundreds of resources on the website all about printmaking.
See our extensive range of printing supplies or check out the latest topics in the resources section.
We suggest you have a look at our tips for beginners, or pop by our forums for some friendly advice from other print makers.
Our aim is to teach you how to create with printmaking materials, to explore your ideas and have fun with art making.
