My sweet Hubs surprised me with some gorgeous roses for Valentine's Day!
After swooning over them for a while, I realized the bottom of each rose was encased in a plastic test tube which was filled with water. James and I experimented with them and came up with...
Ta-da! Homemade dot stampers!!
Here's how you can make your own set:
::Go to your local florist and see if they have some extras they'd like to donate to you. :) UPDATE: My friend, Becca Jo, suggested this site as a place to purchase these tubes if the florist isn't an option.
::Fill the tubes with water, then add a drop of food coloring.
::Put the cap on* and shake gently to mix the colors. James loved this part - he enjoyed watching the colors slowly swirl together with the water.
UPDATE: I should mention the caps stay on while you use these stampers. There's a small hole in the middle of the cap that releases the watercolor when pressed against something.
For the "canvas" simply do this:
::Find a tray (a cookie sheet works well, too) and lay a sheet of wax paper on it and then 2 layers of paper towels, that way you'll get two paintings in one shot! :)
::Spritz the towels with water (for some reason this helps the stampers release their colors).
This was SUCH a hit with James. We made quite a few paintings, which are now beautifully decorating James' schoolroom!
After swooning over them for a while, I realized the bottom of each rose was encased in a plastic test tube which was filled with water. James and I experimented with them and came up with...
Ta-da! Homemade dot stampers!!Here's how you can make your own set:
::Go to your local florist and see if they have some extras they'd like to donate to you. :) UPDATE: My friend, Becca Jo, suggested this site as a place to purchase these tubes if the florist isn't an option.::Fill the tubes with water, then add a drop of food coloring.
::Put the cap on* and shake gently to mix the colors. James loved this part - he enjoyed watching the colors slowly swirl together with the water.
UPDATE: I should mention the caps stay on while you use these stampers. There's a small hole in the middle of the cap that releases the watercolor when pressed against something.
For the "canvas" simply do this:
::Find a tray (a cookie sheet works well, too) and lay a sheet of wax paper on it and then 2 layers of paper towels, that way you'll get two paintings in one shot! :)::Spritz the towels with water (for some reason this helps the stampers release their colors).
This was SUCH a hit with James. We made quite a few paintings, which are now beautifully decorating James' schoolroom!
I love love love love your dot stampers :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome post. I was searching the web last week trying to figure out how I could make something like this. I didn't find anything. Thank you so much for your great idea!!!
ReplyDeleteLove it!! How creative :)
ReplyDeleteYou are so creative! What a great idea.
ReplyDeleteFabulous idea and so colorful!
ReplyDeleteVery inventive! I love it!
ReplyDeleteWow Mari-Ann!!! so kool!!!, very very creative!! (as always!!!)lol, love this post!!
ReplyDeleteBig Hugs,
Karen
That's so cool! Love your idea!
ReplyDeleteThis is soooooo coooool! Thanks for sharing that with us!
ReplyDeleteI've been saving those things for years, but never had an idea what to do with them. Thanks!
ReplyDeletePerfect!! I'm totally hitting up our local florist! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous way to recycle.
ReplyDeleteWow! I love this idea! Thank you so much for sharing it! Can't wait to try it. Now, if I could just get someone to send me some flowers....LOL! :)
ReplyDeleteWow, this is beautiful! What a creative way to use those little things! It looks like James was really into it. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat cute stampers and the project turned out great!!
ReplyDeletethis is such a great idea, and love the finished artwork too! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea. I love seeing all of the creative things that people come up with on these blogs!
ReplyDeletethose are PERFECT!!! I'm going to ask tomorrow to see if they have some i can buy (cheaply) maybe they will just give them to me :)
ReplyDeletethanks so much! I'll let you know how it goes!!
Ummm... I'm feeling a bit thick - how do you get the dots if the cap is on, and if it's off, how does the water not just go everywhere when you tip it up??
ReplyDeleteyou are brilliant my dear!!!
ReplyDeletefrom a florist, to the people who have never seen one of these things before: here's how it works.
they are basically little plastic test-tubes with a rubber stopper over the top of it. the rubber stopper has a hole in it that kind of seals itself back up if there is no flower stem sticking into it! kind of like an ear piercing if that makes sense.
the reason the water on the paper makes it work is probably because of capillary action. the water wants to get out because of gravity, but since nothing is holding the hole open, it needs some help from the damp paper.
AVOID the tubes that have the green sharp bottom-they are used for placing items like lillies and orchids into arrangements in a very specific spot and i don't think they'd be kid friendly.
i found these online, and it looks like the really big one has multiple holes!
http://www.dakotaplastics.com/TUBES.htm
Thanks, everyone! Hope you have fun with this!
ReplyDeletevery clever! I am saving this idea for the next time I get roses! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's genius! :)
ReplyDeletewow that's such an awesome idea, I want to try this out :D
ReplyDeleteYou are so creative! I never would have thought to use those tubes for a kid's art project, but those dot stampers are so cool! And honestly, the colors look just as vivid (or more so) than my store-bought dot stampers! I love the art James created with these!
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing, I can't wait to give them a try :0)
ReplyDeleteYou are featured as one of my great posts of the week. Here is the link: http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/2010/05/great-posts-i-came-across-this-week-may_08.html
ReplyDeleteOh my word i have a bunch of these from flowers that i have kept just in case- and now i know how to use them- thank you!!!
ReplyDeleteFantastic idea. I'm definitely trying this.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! We are going to have to try this one.
ReplyDeletei have a ton of these little viles and was trying to think of cool things to do with them - this is perfect! brilliant idea! thank you!
ReplyDeleteLove this idea! I will be trying it with my boys. Thanks!
ReplyDeletefor some reason these stampers remind me of the pictures in the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle) They would be great for making pictures to go with the book!
ReplyDeleteWOW, these are fantastic! What a great idea! I'll definitely be trying to make my own very soon. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteKind regards, Georgia
Hi, I tried doing this and it didn't work out too well with the food coloring. However, we found some liquid water colors on clearance and I thougt I would try it...WOW! The difference was fantastic. My 18 month old daughter had so much fun and we did it on watercolor paper. It turned out gorgeous. Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteWow, what an incredible idea! You are so, so creative!!!!! Visiting you from growing3godlygirlz@blogspot.com.
ReplyDeletethank you again!
I found some of these in a thrift store and didn't know what they were but used them for the used needles in the sewing box when the child was done sewing. Thanks for letting me know what they are used for and now for another activity I'm sure the children will enjoy.
ReplyDeleteOMG that's where I have seen this!!! I just got a whole carton of these for free last weekend!! I wanted ideas for them - glad I saw this tonight!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful blog. I'm your newest follower. Hope you'll have time to visit my blog sometime: Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea!!! Shared here http://siayla.blogspot.ca/2014/02/got-paint-try-painting-with-out-typical.html
ReplyDelete