Art at home: Veggie Prints

Just a quick post, though I do have more stories and pictures to blog, and all your blogs to catch up with... much later after the kids have gone to bed!

Did you use vegetables to make prints when you were in secondary or primary school?


Now I'm not terribly good at cutting veggies though, and twice when I was newly married and only cooking for two, I ended up getting stitches on different fingers because I cut myself badly when trying to dice a carrot and core an apple! I'm better now, but just so you know I'm no Martin Yan (and especially not him and his don't-try-this-at-home chopping skills)!

But I digress. I love to let my kids get their fingers deep in paint, a lot more than deep in mud. Last Friday, after his first day at school, when the other kids were taking home art pieces they've painted in class, my little boy Ben told me he didn't have one "... because we have our own paints at home!".

So last weekend, I let him play with these veggie prints. It's easy, it's fun, and children this age (and the experts are right in saying so, that our kiddos) always enjoy the process so much more than the end-result. And really, that's all that matters, right?


And Ben did look like he was having a good time!


Other ideas that work for us
This is a variation of using sponge, bare fingers, or brushes to paint with. And if you aren't a great fan of chopping greens, use lady's fingers or some other vegetable that already has its own pattern once you slice through it.

Before, when Jon was still more interested in such green stamps, he would use them to make repeated patterns without me asking him. And whether it's that, or a more abstract piece like what Ben's done, there are several things we can turn the artwork into, from homemade cards to art on the wall, to wrapping paper, and whatever works for you!




We have switched to washable paint, but as you must know, not everything that says it's washable can be washed off! And probably the only other downside of washable paint is that it fades almost as soon as it's dried up. So now, I try and remember to snap a digital picture when the colours are at their brightest, so we'll still have a soft copy of the artwork even when we throw the hardcopy away later. Maybe that'll work for you too, to keep the clutter down?!