Printing with Styrofoam

A lot of crafting for me is about creative reuse, and when we bought the girl a lamp for her new art table and this little block of foam was in there, I knew I wanted to try to do some printing with it.

Printing with Styrofoam is easy, but it does take a little time to get the carving deep enough for it to really work well.

I could probably carve mine out even more than I did, but I actually like it the way it is. 

Getting Started Printing with Styrofoam

All you need to do Styrofoam printing is a piece of foam, something to score it with (I used a knitting needle, of course), a simple design, some paint, a brush and paper to print on.

Being the season, I did a large heart. I tried some smaller hearts, too, but never dug them out enough to get them to print well. Large, simple shapes are the best here.

A knitting needle was a great tool for this because it could dig out the foam pretty well. You need a nice, deep scratch for your image to show up, because that space where the paint isn’t getting is what makes the shape.

It will probably take you a few tries to get it dug out enough.

As I said, mine’s still not perfect but I like the messiness of it. I think this would be cute for rustic Valentines, or to use as a stamp on an art journal page. I should probably head back to that page with all the hearts on it…

What Else You Can Try

If you don’t happen to have a piece of Styrofoam hanging around, try using a foam takeout container. You could also try working on a thick piece of craft foam, but I’m not sure how well that would work.

You could also try — and this one I’m going to have to explore another day — using the sticky-back foam to cut out shapes, stick them to another piece of foam or cardboard to make a block and then print the whole sheet at once. That could be really cool.

Or come up with another way to make prints. Maybe make your own stamp out of a sponge. (That’s another one I’ll have to try!)

Whatever you’re making this weekend, I’d love to see it. Tag me on social with #ourdailycraft.