Home Sick.

I don’t know how your houses are this winter – but mine seems to be full of little sickies. Well, one little sick person in particular. My son has gotten every type of cough/cold – flu and earache for the last three weeks. So today, he is with me at home recovering again. I needed to make a few new prints of The House Next Door, so he decided to try his hand at creating his own print.

This is a really fun and easy activity to do with kids.

First he drew his idea onto the rubbery stamp material. It’s good to leave a bit of space between the elements so that the cutting tool has enough room to delineate each clearly. (please note PJ chic)


With smaller children ( and even big ones) it is important to show the proper way of holding the block while you cut– Behind your cutting hand. It is easy – even on these soft blocks to have the cutting tool get away from you and slip forward – this can make a nasty cut if your hand is in the way.



So here he is cutting out the negative space ( those areas which will not have ink).

Ok – all inked up (put on with rolling brayer for an even coating – nice and thick). I use an old picture glass from a frame that broke - watch the corners for sharp edges.



Try a test first to make sure that all of the areas look right – if not – then you can go in again to cut away more. I use water-based ink so cleaning up is really easy. The ink does stain clothes.


And here are the final prints – with some mixed media (crayon) embellishment. He is ready to open his own shop – what do you think?? They are titled "Rocket Off".