Carved Print Crafts for All Ages

Making print crafts using carvings involves drawing, carving and planning skills. Older school age children can carve images using soap. Teens and adults can try their hand at carving out erasers. A set of sharp carving tools that teens and adults can use costs about $10. Stick to age-appropriate carving crafts for the younger kids. Older art students and adults can try their artistic hand at the soap craft, too, because it's fun.

Soap Carving

What you Need

A bar of white soap
A pencil
A wooden craft stick
A chenille stick
A sponge
Ink or paint

A bar of soft white soap should be easy to carve with safe items. School-aged children can use a pencil, craft stick or chenille stick to carve out the soap. Older kids who know how to handle a vegetable peeler can use that to carve soap. Plastic knives, pumpkin scraping tools and melon scoopers can all be used to create indentations and shapes in the soap

1. Draw an image directly on the soap using a pencil.
2. When the basic image is down, the image can be outlined again, pressing the pencil deeper into the soap.
Tip: choose a simple image to start.
3. A wooden craft stick can also be used to help dig out the image.
4. Gently brush away the soap pieces as you carve.
5. Rub some ink or paint onto the carved image on the soap. Add a dab of clear dish soap to the paint or ink to help make it more pliable.
7. Press the inked image onto a piece of paper.
8. Make multiple prints until the ink is gone.
9. Use the images to hang up in your home or cut them out and use them on greeting cards.

Eraser Carving

Square or rectangular pink erasers can be carved quite easily, with a set of carving tools. This craft is for older kids and adults, who feel comfortable using the tools. Always carve away from the face and other people.

1. Sketch an image on the eraser. Eraser carvings are best for small and simple images or for creating personalized stamps.
2. Carve the image using the most narrow tool you have. Add deeper areas and wider carves with the other tools.
3. Apply ink to the image with a brayer. Spread the ink evenly or you will have blotches in your final image.
4. Press the inked stamp into a paper towel to remove the excess.
5. Make multiple prints on paper.

If you enjoy carving erasers, you can also buy larger sheet-size pieces of eraser like material to carve.