Handmade Stamps: Facial Features

 Foam Stamps

Stamps, paper, postcards, print-making...
This simple stamp-making project can provide hours of creative art time http://mermagblog.com/diy-silly-face-stamps-and-a-get-messy-contest/
 

 Painted Images

We were gifted craft foam stickers, pre-cut into animal shapes.
You could easily glue these pre-cuts onto wooden blocks.
Instead, we took a page from 'Mer Mag' and made geometric shapes that were interpreted in various ways.

Baby C was quick to pick out the "egg" (oval) and the "riangle" (triangle)
While O had other idea's about what the images represented.
What I thought looked like a blinking eye, she saw as a "roller-coaster", the closed eye, a "door" and the profile of a nose, a "foot". 

 Deep in concentration

 Sensory Play

The first round of art, both babes went at it; learning how to stamp, which side of the block to press ink onto, various ways around your could look at the image, finger-printing and creating art!

The second round, I asked O if I could give her a paper with a large oval to represent a face.
She started with eyes and a nose and then became fully immersed in finger-printing and filling the page with colour.

Pattern & Print

She even took to some pattern-making, squeezing in her own math lesson.

These stamps, ridiculously cheap and easy to prep, will last us a long time!
If you're children are interested, they can even be involved in cutting the length of wood into blocks, sanding and drawing images for foam transfer, to include them in the design process.

EXPAND ON STAMPS AND PRINTS
I love me some print-making!!
Not only beautiful on paper, but fabric too!!
Loads of lessons can be snuck into these art projects; math (shapes, geometry, patterns, counting), telling stories, writing letters, creative thinking.

Geninne's Cork Stamps. These are masterfully crafted from cork! Beauty!

Stamps & Lit. Mama Miss combines stamp-making with Leo Leonni's 'Swimmy' and uses tri-colour ink pads! http://www.mamamiss.com/2015/06/11/diy-stamps-swimmy/ 
We have been reading 'Last Stop on Market Street' and admiring the inner cover images.
Most children's picture books have gorgeous inside covers that could be inspiration for print-making,

Print & Possibility. We have used styrofoam before, which can easily be drawn on with a ball-point pen to create a printing block, but you can use various objects from around the house (and fridge!)
http://www.clipzine.me/u/zine/92365252337841096007/DIY-Stamps-Patterns 
Cork, clay, wood, foam, fruit, veg, buttons, objects found in nature, TP rolls, lino(leum) blocks.