Printmaking Made Easy This Valentine's Day

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, get creative and make your own homemade prints to give to loved ones and friends. With printmaking, you can create custom designs and personal messages for each person on your Valentine’s Day list. Also, this is an easy art project to try with the whole family if you are looking for a fun activity to keep the kids entertained this weekend.  

For this project, you will need an X-ACTO (or scissors), paper, ink (or paint), brushes, and a clean space to work. Most of these materials you can find in your home, however, if you want to purchase ink or specialty papers, check out your local arts and craft stores for these materials.

Let’s get started.

1. Create workspace and assemble materials.
2. Draw your stencils on thin cardboard with pencil.
   Some imagery ideas for Valentine’s Day are hearts, stars, bow and arrow, Cupid, lettering, and any other graphic elements that might be fun to work with. Remember to keep your graphics simple as small details do not print very well.
3. Cut your stencils out.
   Use an X-ACTO for more accuracy. If you are working with children, prepare the stencils ahead of time to avoid problems with sharp objects.

If stencil making doesn't seem like your cup of tea, you can skip these first few steps by purchasing store bought stencils.

After you have your stencils that you will print with, layout your specialty paper. You can choose to print on a full page or crop your paper down to a specialized size. For my printmaking project, I chose to cut long strips of stock paper that can be used for bookmarks.

For the next few steps, get your paint and brushes handy.

1. Begin painting with stencils
   Painting with stencils can be tricky. Limit the amount of paint on your brush. My advice is to keep the brush dry and paint inwards from the edge of the stencil into the center.
2. Remove stencil and let dry.
   After your first layer of paint is dry, layout more stencils and paint with another color. Your designs will be more interesting and fun if you try some overlapping and multiple color schemes.
3. Repeat last two steps until desired composition is completed.

Traditionally, printmaking requires expensive and elaborate materials to complete. However, following these six easy steps, you can print on just about any material, allowing art making at home accessible to all.