Carrot Stamps

I'm giving you two full servings of vegetables today ... lettuce and now carrots!
Your tummy can thank me later.

We are going to transform a carrot into a tool that can be used for soo many different projects you can do with your little people this summer!

We are going to transform a carrot into a stamp.

Not only is it fun, it only takes about 10-15 minutes AND this stamp is really easy for little hands to hold!

You will need:
A carrot ... or two
x-acto knife
fabric paint
paintbrush
any kind of material to stamp i.e. t-shirt, pillow case, bag, etc.

Grab your carrot ... here is mine.

draw any kind of shape on the largest end.
(You could also take a couple carrots and make the letters in your child's name or initials.)
We made 4th of July t-shirts so we chose a star.

Don't laugh at my drawing ... my star turned out a little crooked so I had to fix it.

Now, you will need your x-acto knife

cut 1/4 inch vertically down into the carrot along the edges of the drawn shape. Like this...

Here is a closer look ...

When you have cut vertically through all the lines of your shape, you will need to connect those cuts horizontally across the carrot ...
this will make those pieces you won't need around the shape pop out.

Then it will look like this ...

Then repeat for all the other sides ...

In the end you will have something like this ...

And maybe you will catch one of your little ones nibbling away on an extra carrot like I did ... hopefully NOT on the carrot you just finished cutting!

Now you are ready for your material.
We used t-shirts with stripes for the 4th of July!

You can mark the pattern you want to stamp or just let your little one have full responsibility of the pattern decision.

Get your paint and paintbrush ready ...
I would recommend trying out your stamp a few times and showing your little one how to use it.

Coat your shape with the paint

and stamp away!

Make sure you re-apply the paint to your shape after every stamp.

Then you've got yourself a fun little project ... finished in 10-15 minutes!!!

Don't forget to set the paint - read the paint bottle for instructions.

And little Mr. Blue eyes is ready to celebrate the stars and stripes!
Well, he'll be ready when he finds his beautiful smile!

I stamped on over to:

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