If you get a chance to stamp with children, take it! On Saturday, the local Watertown Chamber of Commerce held an Easter Eggstravaganza for local children. There was face painting, cookie decorating, crafts, card making, games, coloring contest, llamas in Easter costume, lambs and photos with the Easter Bunny. I just love being able to be part of this event!

It was so fun watching the kids. Some were totally comfortable and just dove right in, others were unsure of themselves and needed some help to get started. One little boy didn’t want to make a card so his mom started making a card and oh my, did he have fun making his card! Watching the dads interact with the kids is fun too, some them dive right in and have fun stamping too.

This year I was so lucky to have two of my team members, Brenda and Helen, come and help. Our biggest job was handing around stamps and keeping them relatively clean. With a big crowd like this helpers are really nice!

Tips for doing an event with children:

• Don’t use anything that you treasure! The ink pads will get messed up, the stamps may get stained.
• Use paper plates to hold each ink pad and the matching stamps.
• Have the card bases all cut, scored and folded.
• Cut a stamp chamois (or several) in half and use to clean the stamps. If possible have several so that someone can occasionally run and rinse them.
• Cover the entire table with a throw away table cloth.
• Don’t design a card, just let the kids imaginations free. That’s the fun part, watching what they come up with!
• Bring Advil, it’s pretty chaotic, you may need it.

I actually purchased the Easter Friends stamp set this year just for this event, but I often pull out old stamp sets and use those. I used some of my retired color ink pads. the kids do have a tendency to put a stamp with chocolate chip ink into a pink pirouette ink pad, so keep that in mind when choosing ink colors. Kids love colors. This event has about 250 families attend and I had about 150 kids make cards. I prepped 200 card bases. If I hadn’t done the event several times before I probably would have prepped 300 bases just to be sure I didn’t run out.

Also, be sure to admire their creations, the smile you get will be worth it.