Printmaking With Styrofoam- DIY Valentine Banner

Printmaking with styrofoam is a fun art project to do with kids and adults alike. Unlike traditional lino block printing, printmaking with foam is much faster and you don’t need any fancy or sharp tools. This is an easy way to try printmaking with kids. Make a DIY Banner for Valentine’s Day!

I teach handicrafts at our Charlotte Mason homeschool-hybrid cottage school, two days a week. Earlier this year we studied the works of German Artist “Albrecht Durer”. Durer was famous for his copper engravings and carved wooden block prints. I thought it would be fun for the kids to experience block printing themselves, so that’s where the styrofoam comes in.

Because we started our project in late January, I made some Valentines day inspired styrofoam plates to show the kids how it’s done. Of course, the students were allowed to choose their own subject matter for their prints so not everyone went with Valentines, but their prints all turned out so good!

I decided to make a banner out of my heart prints. Two banners actually, one to display in my classroom, and another for home. I had a lot of fun playing around with the styrofoam, and ended up making even more prints. I’m thinking that I may even make my Christmas cards this year using this technique.

This is simple enough to try at home with some pretty accessible supplies.

Supplies:

1. Styrofoam plates, trays, or takeout containers.
2. Scrap paper or newspaper
3. Ball point pen (preferable one with ink that doesn’t run when wet)
4. Scissors
5. Glass baking dish or glass cutting board
6. Brayer or FIRM mini foam paint roller
7. Block printing ink or acrylic paint, any color you like (I haven’t personally tried printing with acrylic paint yet, but I’ve heard that it will work in a pinch)
8. A few plastic spoons
9. Apron or Smock (especially if you’re doing this with kids. Ink is sticky and gets everywhere.)
10. Wet diaper wipes (for easier finger clean-up)
11. Cardstock in preferred colors
12. Bone folder or spoon
13. Hole punch or sharp exacto knife
14. Ribbon or String in preferred colors

Directions For Printmaking with Styrofoam:

Design

1. Start by cutting the curved edges off your styrofoam plate or tray. You want a flat surface of foam to work with.
2. Practice drawing your design on a scrap piece of paper. Don’t rush. Once you start drawing your design onto the foam, there’s no going back! Because your pen is actually etching a groove into the styrofoam, it can’t be erased.
3. Carefully draw your design onto the styrofoam with your pen. You want to press hard enough to leave a groove or a dent in the foam, but not so hard that it catches on the foam and gouges it. This takes some practice. Test out the pen pressure on the plate scraps that you cut off until you get a feel for it.

Print

1. Lay down scrap paper or newspaper to protect your table.
2. Spoon or squirt a dab of paint at one end of your palette tray (glass baking dish).
3. Use the brayer to spread a little bit of the ink on the palette in a thin layer. Roll the brayer in every direction to really spread out the ink. It should feel sticky and make a sticky sound. Add a little more ink as you need it, but just a bit at a time.
4. Lay your styrofoam block design flat and face up, on a piece of scrap paper or newspaper
5. Once the brayer roller is coated with a thin layer of ink, roll it over your styrofoam block design.
6. Repeat the last two steps and roll more ink onto the brayer and then onto your design. You can repeat this a few times to build up the layers of ink without making it too gloopy.
7. Lay the paper on top of your styrofoam block and smooth it evenly with your hands, a bone folder, or the back of a spoon.
8. Carefully lift your paper by one corner and slowly pull the styrofoam away.
9. Place your fresh print somewhere safe to dry for about twelve hours.
10. Repeat, make as many prints as you like! To make a Valentines banner like mine, print several heart shapes.

Make The Garland

1. Once the prints are dried, cut around your hearts.
2. Line up your hearts and cut a piece of ribbon long enough to thread through all of them with extra ribbon on each end.
3. Use an exacto knife to cut slits the width of your ribbon on either side of your heart prints, or use a hole punch to punch a holes on either side.
4. Thread the ribbon through each heart, leaving enough ribbon on each end to tie into a bow.
5. Voila! Your Valentine banner is complete! Hang it up and admire it!

Tips

1. IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember that your design will be a mirror image once you print it, so any writing, numbers, letters, or symbols will appear backwards in your final print. To avoid this, be sure to write backwards!
2. Try different colors of ink and paper to change up the look of your prints.
3. Wait for your styrofoam block to dry before rolling a new color of ink on it.
4. I used tiny clothespins for one of my banners to change things up.

Do you think you’ll try printmaking with styrofoam? I’d love to see your creations. Tag me @blythehouse1860 on instagram so I can see them and share! Just think of all the things you could print!

Thanks for being here!

Lindi Joe