Flower Printmaking

Description: You will need 4 square pieces of paper, water-based ink, ink rollers, parchment paper, thin foam cut into slightly smaller squares, and a pencil. First, have the students draw flowers on the square pieces of paper. Then, have them choose their 2 favorites. Tape the drawings onto the thin foam boards and trace their lines. Make sure they use enough pressure to make indents on the foam. When they are done, take the paper off and have them re-trace the lines they just made on the foam board, so they are nice and deep but not making any holes. Next, tape down the parchment paper to the table or surface. Put a few dollops of in on the parchment and, using a roller, roll it out to an even consistency. It shouldn't be too thick. You will know that it is too thick if the ink on the roller has a spiky texture, keep rolling until it is minimized or gone all together. Lastly, roll the ink onto the foam stamp evenly. Carefully place the ink covered stamp in the center of a slightly larger square paper. Ink will get everywhere on your hands, it is inevitable. Place a clean piece of paper on top of the stamp and apply even pressure. You can use a clean ink roller, but using just your hands works too. To see if you need to ally more pressure, lift a corner of the foam stamp to see the results. Do not lift the whole stamp off unless it is well covered in the ink. Peal the paper off of the stamp and let dry overnight. Do this with all of the stamps. Our class had each student make two stamps and was partnered with another student. The students would use each other's stamps collaboratively, taking turns. Once the prints have dried overnight, glue them onto a sheet of construction paper, have the students write their name on their project, and you're done!

Extension Activity: An extension activity you could do with this is instead of drawing flowers or plants from memory, have the students trace leaves and plants they scavenge from around the playground or school. This would be great for a biology class when teaching about different types of plants.