Create your own stamps and print your way to playful patterns and textures.

What You Need: 

• Cardboard 
• Scissors 
• Glue 
• Stamp pad 
• Paper 

What You Do: 

1. Cut a piece of cardboard about 3 inches by 3 inches. This will be the base of your stamp. 
2. Cut additional pieces of cardboard in any shapes you’d like that are smaller than your stamp base. Play around with arranging the pieces on your stamp base in different compositions. 
3. Glue the shape pieces to the stamp base and let dry.  
4. Cut a piece of cardboard about 1 inch by 1 inch and glue to the back to use as a handle. 
5. Now it’s time to print! Press your stamp on the ink pad and print it on a piece of paper. Try turning the stamp as you print to create different patterns. 

Words to Use: 

• Printmaking: Making designs or images by printing them with ink and allows many copies of the same picture. 
• Pattern: A regularly repeated arrangement of shapes, colors or lines on a surface. 
• Composition: The way in which different parts that make up a picture are arranged. 

What to Talk About:  

• How many different patterns can you make with one stamp? 
• What kinds of art or products are made with prints? 

Change It Up:  

• Fold your printed paper into a card and write a letter to a friend. 
• Make two stamps and create a checkerboard grid pattern. 
• Try overlapping different colors to experiment with color mixing. 

Learning Connections:  

• Creativity 
• Imagination 
• Innovation 
• Visual-Spatial Thinking 
• Using Tools 

Curriculum Connections:
NC Standard Course of Study 

• Visual Arts K.V.1.1, K.V.1.4, K.V.3.1, K.V.3.3, K.CR.1.1, 1.V.1.1, 1.V.1.4, 1.V.1.5, 2.V.1.4, 2.V.1.5, 2.V.3.1, 3.V.1.4, 3.V.1.5, 3.V.3.1, 3.V.3.3, 4.V.1.4, 4.V.3.3, 5.V.1.5, 5.V.3.3 
• Math NC.K.G.1, NC.K.G.2, NC.K.G.3, NC.K.G.5, NC.1.G.1