Crafts for children cannot do without making your own stamps

The following crafts for children require adult supervision as they require cutting fruit and vegetables with sharp kitchen knives.

Vegetable printing

Potato printing 2+ years Adult supervision needed for cutting

You will need: - Knife - Cookie cutters (medium sized) - Wooden board - Paint and brush - Paper enough to practice on aswell - Paper towel or toilet paper - Newspaper and apron or old T-shirt - Potatoes

Cut potato in half. Push cookie cutter into the white of the potato. Cut round the cookie cutter, remove the potato round the sides of the cookie cutter. Remove the cookie cutter from the potato, so that the inside shape is left attached to the potato, to make a stamp. Wipe the bottom of the potato dry before painting the paint onto the potato stamp. You can possibly stamp two to three times on the paper before needing to apply more paint. Stamp away on your paper and have fun.

**Variation - Older more practised children can even decorate walls and matching linen for their room. With these crafts for children ideas, I have used good quality acrylic paint on wood, fabric and paper with good results. Otherwise, use fabric paint on fabric. (Remember to wash fabrics before stamping.)

- Wooden blanks need a base coat first before you can print. - Finished items make great gifts. - Use the same cookie cutter to make real cookies (apricot cookie recipe for mother's day is a good idea), and wrap them in the paper you stamped with the potato. - One can also make designs by cutting away parts of a potato in a desired pattern.Unlike the cookie cutter stamp, this method is more difficult to duplicate.

Fruit printing (2+ years)

You will need:

- Oranges, lemons, apples and pears or any fruit with a good shape once cut in half or quarters. - Knife - Wooden board - Newspaper and apron/ old T-shirt - Grapefruit spoon; not essential - Paint - Paper towels or toilet paper - Paper for testing (newspaper) and stamping

Cut the fruit in the desired half or quarter. Wipe dry with paper towels before applying paint to the fruit. Stamp on practise paper before stamping on paper. Segments of a lemon or orange can be removed for different effect.

Tip: Cut the fruit like oranges the day before to allow them to dry out a bit.

** Variations - Incorpoarte these crafts for children and decorate a matching table cloth and/or fabric serviettes for your kitchen. - This is a wonderful way to explain to chilren how patterns are formed by arranging shapes.

Sunday school idea: you will know them by their fruit Matt. 7v 15-20

Vegetable printing (3+ years) Adult supervision is required

You will need:

- Onions( wash and dry onion halves before using) , carrots, green peppers, cabbage,etc. - Knife - Wooden board - Newspaper and a apron/old T-shirt - Paint - Paper towels or toilet paper - Paper for printing and testing (newspaper)

Cut onions in half from different angles. Cutting vegetable from different angles give interesting results, experiment to see what you like best. Wipe dry. Apply paint and stamp on paper.

Sunday school idea: Once you have had fun with these crafts for children ideas, you can easily incorporate the ideas in your Sunday School. For example; Looking after our bodies and how God makes the best food.

More crafts for children