On days at home with all these sweet little ones, when it's raining, when we're in a funk, and/or when all else fails? We go to the art store (locals, we looove Artist & Craftsman!), where sometimes all it takes is a 'fancy new pen' for everyone to shift their thinking and get excited about a new project.
On a trip last week, my boys stumbled upon the linocut block printing aisle. And there in that aisle - I saw my saving grace for the days of rain predicted ahead of me. I had remembered a few online tutorials, so I gathered supplies remembering that advice on using them was just a few clicks away (Geninne's Hand Carved Stamp Tutorials is a great one!).
The soft-kut printing blocks worked so well, especially for the littler hands. The kids drew directly onto the blocks with pencil, then were able to do much or all (in the case of the oldest) of the carving themselves. We used block printing ink, and placed most of our stamps onto linen fabric scraps to be used in sewing projects soon.
And so we proceeded, for days, to make stamps - lots of stamps. Baseballs, farms, leaves, birds, and on and on. So good. I love finding projects that can keep a 3, 6, 8 and 32 year old happy. This was one, for sure. Good times.
On day four, it finally occurred to someone to ask what on Earth we were going to do with the results of all this stamping. The first idea Calvin put into action was sets of Harry Potter note cards for his friends. But there's a whole big pile of stamped fabric just waiting for more ideas.
Thankfully, there's no shortage of 'ideas' around here...