How to set up a Styrofoam Printmaking Basket, on a Budget!

Easily incorporate Printmaking Art Projects in your homeschool with a budget-friendly Art Basket for Styrofoam Printmaking, great to go along with the Build Your Masterpiece Class! Let's get started...

Setting up a Styrofoam Printmaking Art Basket, on a budget!

Bringing art into your home, homeschool or classroom is a fun thing to do, and with the Build Your Masterpiece Class, you will be able to use styrofoam to make prints, in various themes, learning about multiple countries and Artists, beginning with Pablo Picasso in France of Week 3. Let me share with you how you can set up your own simple Styrofoam Printmaking Art Basket, so you can keep all your supplies on-hand and yes, on a budget too!

Thrift stores + the dollar store will be your best friend

Starting with a nice sized basket is a good first step, and you have may one that will work for you already within your home, as we did! I found this at Value Village, many years ago, and it has held many different things over the years, and now we have it as the Styrofoam Art Basket. We took a trip to the dollar store, and were able to find foam rollers with trays, for under 4$ each! I was very excited about that, but I am sure you can also find these at your local hardware store, for maybe a litle bit more. These are trays a bit on the flimsy side, but they do the trick for my three kids! The styrofoam sheets can be purchased online, or at your local art supply store. But, we have started to save our takeout containers and cut out the main flat portion of both the lid and bottom of the containers. Having these to add to your basket, may take some time to slowly build up, but if you order Chinese food once in a while, it will surprise you how much styrofoam you actually come in contact with! We also like to save our styrofoam trays from the grocery store, that are meats and veggies come packages on. Clean up really good, and allow to dry, cut up into sheets, and you are good to go. Another handy supply, that is simple to come by is a plastic fork. They can be used to scratch interesting texture in the styrofoam, and are fun to use. Our paint tray sets came with two different sizes of foam rollers, so that was really lucky.

Other tools you can add to your basket, or simply have on hand in your art or school room:

Paint (Crayola Washable Paint, or Crayola Acrylic Paint or Artist Acrylic Paint)
Ball Point Pens or pencils (we found the pencils didn't work as good as the pens)
Sketchbook (we found these at Staples)

The method for basic styrofoam printmaking:

You want to draw your picture or shapes onto the styrofoam sheet, with either a pencil, or ballpoint pen (the pen works best) Then, add paint to your tray, and take your paint roller, and roll your paint onto your foam roller, a light, even layer of paint, and roll your paint on top of your styrofoam print. Flip it over, and place it onto your sketchbook. Be sure to press and rub firmly to transfer your paint to the paper. You may need to practice this a few times, and depending on how deep and wide your drawing is, and how thin or thick your paint is on top, you will get decent results, with the foam rollers.

If you can spend a bit more, check out these supplies for more accurate results

Art Supplies + Tools:

Brayer, Ink + Accessories - for a smoother printmaking transfer
The Amazing Sketchbook - that works for drawing, sketching + watercolor painting.
Gel Printing Accessories - I cannot wait to try this one out next!

Storage Baskets I thought were pretty awesome:

Thank you so much for visiting Scissors&Glue today, and I wish you luck in setting up your Styrofoam Printmaking Art Basket! It was so much fun setting up ours! Please check out our Build Your Masterpiece Class for more information about our recently released Art + Literature-based Curriculum for PreK to Upper elementary ages students to easily add more hands-on learning in your home! We have parents who homeschool, teachers who teach in the classroom, and mom's with kids in school participating in this class right now, and we would love to have you join in on the fun! Read, paint and cook your way through a creative journey through Italy, France, England, Scotland and Ireland with your kids!