Homemade Heart Stamper

I first saw this idea in The Heart Project book (an awesome fundraiser for the AHA that you should definitely check out), and it immediately stood out to me as a craft Baby Bear and I had to try. As soon as Baby Bear went down for a nap, I grabbed an empty tp roll and some craft foam with sticky backing. I cut hearts out of the foam and stuck them to the tube, thus creating a stamper. I tried attaching it to a paint roller, but I decided that the instability of the roll would probably be a little too hard for Baby Bear to make it actually roll. So, we rolled it by hand instead, and it worked beautifully!

Rather than making a bigger mess by having Baby Bear roll the stamper through a big glob of paint or an ink pad, we used our fingers and paintbrushes to paint the hearts on the stamper. After the first time we painted the hearts, I rolled it across a sheet of paper to show Baby Bear what it did. This is what I got.

Then, we repainted the stamper, I handed it to Baby Bear, and we worked together to roll it across another piece of paper. He wanted to roll it a few times, so we got a layered heart effect.

Later that day, after the paint had dried, Baby Bear had fun peeling the hearts off the roll and trying to re-stick them to a piece of paper.

 This was a great craft that could be adapted for different holidays and age groups. We could do shamrocks for St. Patrick's day, ovals for Easter to make eggs, or stars for 4th of July. Depending on the skill set, an older child could cut out his or her own shapes to design his or her own stamper. This was just one of the many awesome crafts in The Heart Project book. If you haven't bought your copy yet, you should!