Block printing is a great seasonal celebration craft, as once you have made the blocks, you can use them year after year to make decorations, gift cards, or gift wrap. This year the girls were printing independently with their own ideas taking hold! They carved and printed with a self directed interest along side of me. Maya made minatures, and Elle….well you guessed it, Elle made a dog.

We started using easy carve blocks a few years ago, they are a great alternative to wood or lino block printing. We have a couple small lino carving tools, that are basic and easy to use.

I had told Elle she was still too young to carve, and being the little sister she insisted she could because Maya was, and she proved herself right! It takes some fine motor skills and a good sense of touch, not to over carve or break the materials, as it is fairly delicate. The stamps can be used over and over, but they will break and crumble if they are not handled with care. This is a synthetic material, and if you are looking for an earth friendlier option for children, then stamping with fruit and vegetables is one suggestion.

We like stamping with both ink pads, and water soluble ink, using a hard rubber brayer. I use flat large dinner plates to roll out the ink.

Materials
Carving Block
Carving tool
Ink
Brayer
Plate
Paper
Exacto blade

Method
If you want to achieve multi colour relief printing, then this involves, carving one stamp multiple times. You carve an image, then print it out, then you take more away from the stamp, reducing the ink area more, and then once the first prints are dry, you print on top of the first prints a second time. You can repeat this as many times as you like, reducing your stamp and adding another layer of color to your prints. Our Easter eggs are 1-3 layers prints. If you would like to see a great video demonstration of block printing, I love Geninne’s Art Blog stamp tutorials.