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Cardboard Tube Printing

September 10, 2010 by Anna Ranson

We have been going through the recycling bag a lot lately to pull out anything that could be useful in crafts, messy play or imaginative play. I have started to collect them in a lovely big basket on top of the fridge, just ready waiting for us to get creative!

The other day I cut up some cardboard tubes and placed them in a shallow, plastic paint tray with a few squirts of poster paint. I found a few bottle tops and larger jar lids too and added them to the mix.

Cakie had lots of fun printing directly onto sheets of card, using the different sized lids and tubes. The tubes are a particularly good starting point for printing as they are easy to hold and don’t slip over the paper like so many commercial printer pads or like when using vegetables and fruit. Those also offer fun learning experiences (and we use them a lot too), but you don’t tend to see such good results. More like a big, smeary, colourful mess! They work better with a bit more hand control.

We talked as she played and used lots of vocabulary relating to circles, bigger, smaller, overlapping, inside, outside etc.

She then naturally extended the play to become about making a tower from the tubes and experimenting with how many she could stack before they collapsed. 3 (and 1 cookie cutter) apparently!

Next she had a really good go at fitting all of the tubes inside each other and worked out that in order to get the last one in she would have to squish it up first. She was pretty pleased with herself!

Printing always makes visually pleasing results so I shall be thinking of something to do with these finished pictures. Maybe making them into the background pages for a book we will write, the decoration for a play-scence or just frame and hang them!

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Filed Under: Art and Craft, Printing, Recycled Crafts, Shapes, Toddler

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Comments

  1. Lala's Pequenos says

    September 10, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    There’s nothing better than tiny messy hands! Your daughter is beautiful!

  2. JDaniel4's Mom says

    September 10, 2010 at 7:24 pm

    Stopping from Mom Loop! I love your tube painting. The painting came out so well.

  3. Kim says

    September 11, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    Now following you thru GFC. Cute stuff on your blog. http://www.raising3ladies.blogspot.com

  4. child central station says

    September 16, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    What a fantastic Idea!!! Thanks for linking up at What Would You Do With It? Wednesday.

  5. Cathy at NurtureStore says

    December 9, 2010 at 7:31 pm

    Great messy fun and beautiful art too. Thanks for the idea.

  6. RedTedArt says

    December 9, 2010 at 11:20 pm

    Oh I love how she really got to get stuck in (with paint on her face and everything). Just what exploring is all about!

    I would LOVE for you to join us at Kids Get Crafty (every Wednesday on Red Ted Art) – current link up http://www.redtedart.com/2010/12/08/kids-get-crafty-nikolaus-sterne-or-santa-stars/

    Hope to see you there!

    Maggy

  7. Anonymous says

    February 2, 2013 at 1:56 am

    Such a fun idea – you could always use these for wrapping gifts too 🙂

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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