Citrus Stamping Art

With Labor Day weekend beginning, arts & crafts activities are a terrific way to enhance your little one’s days because they effortlessly engage young imaginations. So keep a few options up your sleeve. Start with this colorful open-ended play activity: citrus stamping. Citrus stamping is a simple, effective way to help children learn essential skills in the name of fun. Here’s how it works:

Materials Needed:

• Lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit or a combination of citrus
• A variety of paint colors
• Tray or paper plate to squeeze paint on
• Large sheets of blank white paper

Steps:

1. Gather your citrus and a variety of paint colors.
2. Adult Supervision recommended with this step: Slice each piece of fruit in half to create a flat side. This is your stamp side and the rind-side is your “handle.”
3. Take your paint colors and pour them on the tray in large circles big enough to fit the fruit slices.
4. Lightly dip each fruit slice in the paint and then stamp onto the large sheets of paper.

1. Have your little one stamp until they have created a design or pattern to their liking.

1. Let it dry and admire!
2. Other ideas: use their patterned paper for another craft activity, like making apparel for paper dolls, décor for a dollhouse, or wrapping a present.

Skills this Activity Helps Build:

Fine Motor Skills: From grasping the fruit to applying pressure to their stamp and paper, this project engages children’s fine motor coordination from start to finish.

Creative Process: This activity emphasizes process over producing a result for a truly creative, imaginative experience. Children experience trial and error, which can help build perseverance, and learn to trust their own original thinking.

Listening and Comprehension: As you walk your little one through the steps, they practice following multi-step directions to bring their vision to life.

Science and Art: To create their masterpiece, children explore cause and effect and color mixing, which introduces them to early chemistry and art principles.

Happy stamping!