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Recycled Container Printing

Posted on August 12, 2014 5 Comments

Try this easy art activity using recycled food containers!

“This container has a funny bottom.”

He giggled as he grabbed the plastic food container out of the recycling bin, but he also gave me a great idea!

“Can you find other containers with funny bottoms?” I asked him.

We rifled through the bin together pulling out several plastic trays and containers. It’s amazing how many of them have interestingly textured bottoms when you take the time to look!

With all the interesting, bumpy, liney, ridgy shaped bottoms, they are perfect for some printing!

To do some recycled container printing you’ll need:

  • A selection of containers and trays that have interesting bottoms
  • Some paint and some containers to put the paint into
  • Some rollers or paint brushes
  • A BIG sheet of paper
  • A wet cloth for cleaning up drips
  • Somewhere to dry your creations

recycled food containers for printing.

We found rollers were the easiest way to apply paint to the bumpy surfaces, but you could use a regular paint brush, or try dipping the containers into a large tray of paint.

printing with recycled containers

We managed to find containers with lots of interesting textures. Look for trays with different shaped indents, containers with ridges or lines and even little containers like yogurt tubs make interesting prints. We had success with meat trays, packaging from biscuits and frozen food packaging.

When covered in paint and pressed onto the paper they containers made an array of weird and wonderful printed patterns.

printing with recycled containers

printing with recycled containers

Considering the containers are all pretty big we used a BIG sheet of paper to create on.

Try this easy art activity using recycled food containers!

Try this easy art activity using recycled food containers!

Do you like printing activities? What other things have you printed with?

We’ve tried printing with nuts and bolts, sponge printing, printing with duplo, https://picklebums.com/2012/05/08/easy-art-for-kids-string-and-block-printing/, circle printing and even printing with rolled up newspaper!

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Filed Under: Activities for kids Tagged With: activities for children, activities for preschoolers, activities for school kids, art for kids

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Kate Lloyd says

    What a great idea. Trust kids to notice something like interesting container bottoms. Love this creative painting idea Kate.

    Reply
  2. Marie says

    This would make great patterns for wrapping paper… you could start to get a little organised for Xmas or Birthdays AND keep the kiddies entertained!

    Reply
  3. Hana says

    Love it!

    Reply
  4. Ana says

    I LOVE THIS!!! We’ve been having fun with Styrofoam prints so this is right up our alley! Bravo!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 16 Easy Printmaking Projects for Kids - TinkerLab says:
    October 20, 2014 at 11:02 am

    […] these amazing patterns with recycled container printing: […]

    Reply

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