Stamping with kids

 

 

It turns out, my niece, a 4th grader, is pretty artistic.  She loves to draw and do crafty things.  She and her little sister often spend weekends with my parents and usually end up doing some sort of fun thing with my Mom like baking, making glittered gourds, etc.  Apparently, she loves the cards I make, so I decided to hook her up this past Christmas.  I was planning a visit to my parents for the holidays, and they live in the same town, so I thought I'd get her all the basic supplies she would need and teach her how to stamp.  Now, from experience, I know how hard it is to share things like this, and I knew my Mom would be the one working with her, so I decided to get Mom supplies too.  

I assembled a kit for each of them: a cutter, scissors, adhesive, ink pads, and a few fun stamps, embellishments, and notecards.  I tried picking sentiments and images that would have more than one purpose so they could use them for more than one type of card.  My niece is crazy about animals, especially bunnies, so I got her a couple bunny stamps and the Animal Wishes set by A Muse.  I also got her a wonderful colored pencil roll hand-sewn by Vi (awesome Mom of Linda, owner of A Muse).  I had a lot of supplies that I wasn't using anymore (loads of patterned paper, old stamps, embellishments, etc.) that I also passed along to the two of them.

Saying this was a hit, was an understatement!  She couldn't wait, and while her sister was opening presents she started to make cards! 

 

 

I work a lot with kids, so I figured the little sister would feel left out.  I had already gotten her something else for Christmas, but went ahead found a kid ink pad and a little set of stamps with kids on them (found them at a teacher's supply store) so she could make things too.  I also got her one of Vi's crayon rolls (you can see it in the picture below - isn't it adorable?)  I figured if she could show that she could listen and hang with the big girls, then her big sis and grandma could share their supplies with her.

 

 

Since Mom and the girls live about 1,000 miles away from me, I wanted to introduce them to a lot of things like how to ink stamps properly and how to care for stamps and inks (like, don't stamp on the floor again!  My nieces stuff got loaded with dog hair, LOL).   I also showed them lots of different techniques.  As I went through the techniques with my niece, I had her write "notes" on a mat for herself.  I figured she could keep the mat as a reminder of things she can do with her cards since she wouldn't have me around later.

 

This actually cracks me up now, looking at it.  I love her little notes like, "rub" and "don't touch after"

 

 Notice the smear marks :)

Mom got a little more specialized training later.  I advised her to join the A Muse Lounge so she could see the cards in the design studio, and also suggested that when she sees cards to pay more attention to the layout to get ideas.  We also got to sneak up to Seattle and go to the A Muse shop where we did some serious damage.  Oh my, that store is fabulous!  

Mom and niece will have to learn how to work together.  Mom is more like me and likes a neat, organized space to work in.  My niece is more of a spastic hurricane when she works. :) I really think it's just a difference in how brains work.  I advised Mom to take deep breaths and let the kid go for it.  As long as she is taking proper care of her stamps and putting everything away when she is done, let her go nuts and make a mess.  If she spills glitter, she'll realize her mistake and never do it again.  If she uses 20 twinkle stickers on one card, she'll run out and learn that less is more.  

So far, little sis is going great and may well be on her way to getting a "pro" kit like her big sister :)

In the end, this was a lot of fun and I'm really happy I was able to help teach them how do do something fun together.  Reminds me when I first learned to stamp with my aunt :)

 

Comments

[Glenda]

Great post - looks like you had a lot of fun. What a great aunt you are...

[Tracy]

Love it! So great you could bring the love of stamping to your nieces and Mom. My mom and I started into stamping together and it's such a fun hobby to share. =)

[Travelingmama]

How sweet! Creating with kids is the absolute best!

[cheiron]

How adorable! Looks like tons of fun!

[Ingrid]

Awesome - I love it! Looks like lots of fun (and fun times to come!)

[Jo Ann]

What a wonderful sharing of time, talent and love!

[Jill Grace]

Thanks Jo Ann - it was a lot of fun :)

Jill

[Jill Grace]

Hi Ingrid! :)
It was a lot of fun. The girls are now constantly begging my Mom to stamp with them. Its very cool.

Hope you are well!
Jill