Block Printing with Craft Foam

Our Alpine County office purchased supplies for clients to come in and make a one of a kind tea towel, meant to give away as a gift during the holidays.

For this activity we used:
cotton flour sack towels (about $1 each)
satin acrylic paint
fabric paint additive
small foam paint brushes
foam board
self-adhesive craft foam
scissors
craft cutting mat & craft knife

We purchased a five pack of flour sack towels at our local discount store for $5.
We washed and ironed them prior to painting.

There a large number of ways to embellish a flour sack towel. For this post, we will focus on using homemade blocks made from foam board and self-adhesive craft foam. With most children, the adult will need to set up the block for the child. We used a blade and cutting mat to cut the foam so that was definitely an adult's job.

Begin by cutting a block of foam board. They can be any size the artist can hold easily in their hand. Ours were around 3"-4" on each side.

Kids can help set up the adhesive craft foam on their block.
 The foam pieces on the blue block on top were cut and place there by an 8 year old child. 

Block prints aren't limited to fabric.
Use them on paper, on blank cards, on craft paper for wrapping paper or transform lunch sacks into gift bags.

Embellish with permanent marker.

Heat set the paint with an iron. Set the iron on a medium to hot setting. We had to issue with paint transfers, ironing directly onto the dried, painted surface.

Be sure you don't use steam and your iron's water reservoir is empty. You want dry heat for setting the fabric paint.

Stay tuned for more project photos since we have an open craft table set up in our Alpine County office this month for people to stop by and create one-of-a-kind tea towels.