Hear me: I am not the craftiest mom. Yes, I encourage Xavier to paint or draw or color every day, but I'm not one to sit down and glue googly-eyes to pieces of construction paper I cut into shapes, or any of that. I've done exactly zero of those baby-handprint-in-plaster-of-paris things (is it even called "plaster of paris" anymore?!) I let Xavier go wild on exactly two Christmas ornaments last year and this year, and that's it. You get the picture. Freeform art = yes. Crafts = not so much. BUT! Every now and then I surprise myself.
I was scrolling Instagram and saw a post about making stamped roses using a cut-up artichoke heart. I thought it was super cute, and made a mental note to buy an artichoke next time I was at the store. THEN later that week, I was cutting celery for snacks, and chopped the whole base off in one fell swoop. It rolled away and I realized it looked just like the artichoke heart that was in the rose stamping post! I decided to give it a try and see if I could do the same thing with celery instead of an artichoke. Spoiler alert: you totally can.
Xavier and I whipped up some valentine art for the grandmas and it was exactly my kind of craft - low-key, no real instructions, pretty much zero way to mess it up. For this project, you'll need one bunch of celery (really just the base), paint in various shades of pink/red, and a brush. I stamped onto cardstock because I wanted a bit thicker paper, and I love to use an old muffin tin as a paint palette (get it at the thrift store for fifty cents!)

TO DO THE STAMPING:
Brush your paint color of choice onto the celery heart with a paint brush. I found that a foam brush worked best for even coverage. I layered a fair amount of paint on for a really good stamp.
Press the celery heart onto the paper and apply pressure evenly. Pull off the page and voila - a rose! When I wanted to switch colors, I just wiped the excess paint off the celery heart with a damp paper towel, then brushed on the next color I wanted to use.


THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.
Stamp an abstract-ish pattern to turn into a card (see above) or frame it for some seasonal decor. Stamp a few roses in a line, brush a few green stems + leaves and you've got a perfect print for grandma. I opted for this route for our valentines. Xavier drew on the stems and leaves with a little help from me, we penned a short + sweet poem and ta-da! A valentine that both grandmas loved.
Here's our poem:
Roses are red / violets are blue / you are world's best (insert what you call grandma here) / and I love you!
Pretty easy, right? Just my style :)
