Travis and I have had fun with stamp painting before; everything from Duplo blocks to  raw potatoes have made an appearance in our amateur crafting!

For this novel take on stamp art, all you need is the leftover tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using your hand, crimp one end of the tube until you’ve made a heart. Then set your little one up with white paper and a shallow dish of red paint.

I love it when Travis takes a familiar concept and latches onto it immediately, without my having to explain a thing. The moment he saw the dish of red paint with the tube standing upright, he declared, “Dip dip!” which is also what we say when he dines on food with a dipping sauce on the side. He launched right into happily dipping the tube in the paint and pressing down onto the white paper, then back to the paint again, all while talking to himself excitedly.

I was impressed that he sought out blank portions of the paper for each new stamp of the tube, so that he filled the sheet very evenly without my having to reorient it in front of him. Not every press made a perfect heart, but he picked up on the idea that that’s what we were making.

Since Travis had enjoyed a visit from Grammy that morning, we decided to make this a gift for her. We added a pipe cleaner heart with glue, and presented it proudly for display on Grammy’s fridge.