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You don't need rubber to enjoy this kids' stamping craft. Help the environment by recycling a Styrofoam tray and creating colorful pictures to boot.

What you'll need:

How to make it:

1. Wash and dry styrofoam meat trays thoroughly.
2. Take a pattern and trace it on with a blunt tip onto the styrofoam.
3. Make a handle by gluing a piece of the tray to the back side of the stamp.
4. Use a stamp pad to ink it.

Tips:

The meat trays do the same as the rubber stamps without having to use a heat gun or buying the rubber material to do it with. Plus kids can do it without worrying that they may get hurt. You can use kids coloring books or any design you would like to stamp on something.

You use what you already have and you can use paint or ink pads but if you are going to use ink pads, coat them with some sort of sealer first that would keep the ink from just being absorbed by the meat tray. The best results are achieved when you use paint.

There is another use for meat trays. You can use clip art patterns or children's coloring books. Trace a pattern onto the meat trays using carbon paper or graphite paper. Color with acrylic paints then put on a floured or powdered cookie sheet and into your oven. The meat trays will shrink so you want to cut them out and do any hole punching before you put them into the oven. They make nice little ornaments, pins, tags for gifts, earrings, glue them to little girls or big girls barrettes or use Tack It by Aleene's to make button covers or decorate T-shirts or sweat shirts with them. You can pull them off and throw the shirt into the wash then put them back on again after you dry the shirt.

You will have to play with your oven to find the best setting for your oven as each one is different. Leave them in the oven until they are flat just like the shrink plastic. Be careful as they will be very hot and could burn your fingers.

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