MAMA Children’s Activity Post: “Animal Stamping & Birthday Cards”

We have lots of little card shaped animals (courtesy of Granny) so we decided to do some painting with them and some stamps we had to see what we could create!

Equipment;

– Old clothes/aprons.
– Plastic activity mat.
– Paints (non toxic, water based).
– Paint pots.
– Paintbrushes/sponges.
– Stamping shapes.
– Card cut into animal shapes.
– Extra card for experimenting.
– Wipes

Step 1: Preparation;

I set this activity up at the table with the plastic activity mat and all other equipment. My son helped squeeze all the paints into pots (you may have to do this part for a smaller child).

Step 2: Experimenting with stamps and animal shapes.

Initially we dipped the stamps into the paint directly then onto the card however we found that too much paint went on and when you stamped onto the card it just made big splodges, not the intended shapes. We therefore started to use the paint brushes to put the paint onto the stamps and then stamping – this worked a lot better and we created better defined shapes.

As my son likes to get messy he also painted his hands to make handprints and did some finger painting.

He then wanted me to get more involved so we did some hand prints together which turned out really great and are good memories to keep and we painted together on some larger bits of card.

Step 3: Tidy, tidy, tidy up!

This activity did get nice and messy (which we love!) We needed a wipe down in the kitchen before heading up for a bath! All the reusable equipment needed soaking before a proper wash later and we left our creations to dry.

Step 4: Making cards with our creations!

So after this activity we had a few birthdays coming up so we used some of our animals, hand prints and big paintings to make some birthday cards!

Out of the larger paintings I cut out numbers and letters to spell the name and age of the birthday girl, we then stuck these onto a larger piece of card with some of the decorated animals.

It was also grandad/dad’s birthday so we used one of our combined handprint pictures to make a card from us both!

It is always handy to have some spare handprints/paintings around which you can quickly use to make some personalised cards! Don’t forget to share any of your creations and follow us on instagram, twitter and facebook.