Stamping Fun for the Holidays!

The boys have been having fun making a variety of projects for Advent and Christmas.

One of the activities that they have really enjoyed is making stamp art.
In the book, Joy to the World: Advent Activities for Your Family by Kathleen Basi, the first suggested activity is to make Christmas cards for grandparents.
That suggestion inspired us to get into the mood of making Christmas themed cards and other items with rubber stamps, glitter glue, and other art supplies.

We purchased a neat Christmas stamp set from Michael's, as well as some other Christmas themed ones from Target and other places.
If your children like to do stamping, the Christmas set is on sale right now at Michael's for $4.99.
Great price for a nice stamp set, as it includes 16 little stamps, red and green ink, and two small glitter glue sticks. This set would work great in a Montessori environment if you add a tray and some paper.
The boys have made some holiday cards, bookmarks, as well as file folders for their December work.
We will also decorate some picture frames and ornaments with stamps over the next few weeks.
Putting out stamping work is great, in that it is something that is very open ended and fun but also gives children some nice fine motor practice.
Coloring in the small spaces of a stamp or adding glitter glue trim requires a child to use their fine motor skills and to really concentrate. 

Both Big Bro and Little Bro chose to do their stamping work at the same time today, but am sure that as the days go on throughout the month, this will be a work that they will revisit, either together or by themselves.
As far as storage, one way to re-purpose candy boxes is to use them for stamping work.
We have the various stamps stored in a tiered candy box that has removable compartments from last year. It is very sturdy cardboard and works great for storage.

Do you like to re-purpose containers for art projects or storage?

Here are some photos of the boys and the materials they used for their stamping:

Do your children enjoy stamping? 

What sorts of things have you made?

If you have done any projects using rubber stamps and  / or glitter glue, would love it if you would please leave your link to your post in the comments section.

Here is a link to other Montessori inspired work that we had on our shelves for December in previous years.
Here is a second link to previous Christmas themed works we have done here. 

This post is linked up with Montessori Monday at

Living Montessori Now

and

One Hook Wonder  

As well as Sunday Showcase at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas


Be sure to pop by tomorrow as we are working on making M.C. Escher inspired Christmas tessellations. Here is a link to my Pinterest Board about Tessellations. 

Within the next few days, we will share how to make Christmas Tessellations! Super Fun!!!