February 14th is nearly here so we’re starting on our Valentine crafts with this carrot printing picture. It’s a simple craft for young children to try out, so long as they’re old enough to understand that this carrot isn’t to go in their mouth. You may have tried potato printing before but I find carrots are easier for little hands to grip.
You will need: a paper plate, some red and pink paint, a plate to put the paint on, a carrot, a craft knife or a kitchen knife with a sharp point, a ribbon and some sticky tape.
Cut the carrot in half and etch out a heart shape. A grown-up needs to do this part of course, but it’s fairly easy – I managed it! We did a small heart on one piece of carrot and a big heart on the other but you could do a cross shape for a kiss too. (Apologies for the out of focus photo!)
If you level off the other end of the carrot you’ll be able to stand it upright when you’re not using it.
Put some paint on your plate and dip your carrots in.
Print out your hearts on to the paper plate.
Keep going using the red and pink paints until your artwork is complete.
Add a ribbon on to the back using sticky tape and hang your decoration for all to admire – or give as a present to the one you love.
This post is happily shared with the Virtual Valentine’s Day Party
This is so awesome! I actually need to do some experiments with carrots themselves, and see if a wet carrot can give off some color. I’ve read that cooks use carrots to stain marzipan, so I know that some orange will come off.
This looks like lots of fun – thanks for sharing!
pia
The last time my daughter was munching carrots she got a stain all round her mouth so I think it will work for you!
How cute! We made handmade Valentine’s today too — using paint chips. So much fun!
Really cool, the boys love printing with veg. We will be doing this
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by nurturestore: here’s our first valentine’s craft http://bit.ly/auVawB…
I would try this if I didn’t have a slight foreboding feeling that I would probably slice off a finger trying to wittle the perfect heart…
You should give it a try – it was easier than I thought it would be.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Early Childhood, Baby Simon, Cathy, Cathy, Cathy and others. Cathy said: @ImaginationSoup thought you might like this carrot printing craft for Valentine's day http://nurturestore.co.uk/valentine-carrot-printing [...]
Love this idea – fab – will be giving it a whirl next week! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Claire, glad you liked it. Hope you have fun with the printing.
[...] and American custom seems to demand Valentines’ cards for all and sundry, I decided to give carrot printing a try. I dutifully cut hearts into a carrot. It took ages. I blame the tools. We only have serrated [...]
What a neat idea. I thought I was being all creative when I came up with beet prints. But carrots is really thinking outside the box! Great for smaller hands as the carrot is much easier to manipulate. Thanks for the idea! If you want to see how to do beet prints, check out my blog post here http://www.readilyaparent.com/2010/02/frugal-and-simple-valentines-day-print.html
[...] had the carrot prints done, but my ineptitude with the carving meant they looked a bit, well, sorrowful. So I cut out [...]
[...] If you don’t mind a bit of mess our recipe for ice-cream play-dough is really easy to make and is great when you have a mixed age-group of children, as everyone can join in. We have simple baking recipes you could try too, including a delicious one for raisin oat cookies. Or how about doing something different with your veg and trying your hand at carrot printing? [...]
Oooh, the carrots work really well! Love it! ANd yes you are right, they are much much easier to hold! Love the idea!!
Maggy x
What a fantastic idea! And a great use for the carrots that are little past their best by date!
Thanks maryanne – I like the way this printing turned out
I have seen potatoes used to make prints. This is the first time I have seen a carrot. The hearts look wonderful.
Thanks JDaniel4′s Mom – I found them really easy to carve too.
[...] Carrot printing [...]
[...] new year with children and if you’re inspired to try some carrot printing you might like our heart stamps, which can be used for Valentine’s [...]
[...] hearts. You can let the children decide how they’re going to decorate their hearts, maybe with carrot love heart stamps, crayon resist water paints or using bubbles. Even the youngest ones can join in here if you let [...]
That looks very fun. Great idea to use carrots instead of potatoes.
This is such fun. When I taught Middle School, we did something like this with potatoes for Christmas—kids that age can be very creative.
Cool! We’re going to have to try this.
What a cool idea to do with the kids! Totally going to try it, thanks for sharing! Visiting from JDaniel4′s Mom Virtual Party
fun idea using a carrots as stamps!!!
What a great twist on potato printing! fab idea thanks for sharing this cool craft
Too cute! I love that its super simple and the little ones can have a healthy snack with the other carrots
Thanks Crystal – thanks for stopping by.
What a beautiful, fun and easy stamping idea, Cathy! How neat is your heart carving. Thank you for sharing this link on my post listing other stamping ideas.
A pleasure Rashmie – great to swap ideas with you
[...] red and white paint, with some potatoes or carrots for stamping dots could transform anything into pixie land. How about making some red envelopes with white [...]
Carrot printing is so much fun. I love how you have turned the circles into hearts! How creative!!! I shared a link back to this page with our readers on our most recent carrot post! http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-grow-carrots-and-5-reasons-why.html