Fall Print Making with Styrofoam

I can remember doing printmaking with Styrofoam during elementary school and I thought that this technique would work well for a fall leaf craft. It also works for any design you can think of like Mia's abstract drawing.

Materials:

{Print #1 By Mia, Age 4, Lots of Paint}

• Styrofoam
• scissors
• wooden skewer
• paint
• tray/plate for paint
• brayer (or paint brush)
• paper
• real leaves (optional)

Directions:

{Print #2 By Mia, Age 4, Less Paint}

1. Trim a piece of Styrofoam (ours was recycled from clean, dry meat packaging) into a square or rectangle to fit your paper.
2. Use a wooden skewer to draw (or trace) your design into the Styrofoam. I drew my leaf freehand, and Mia made an abstract design, but you could trace around a real leaf if you like.
3. Pour some paint onto another Styrofoam tray (or a plate) and cover your brayer (or paintbrush with paint).
4. Apply paint to the Styrofoam.
5. Press your painted design firmly onto your paper. If you like, experiment with different colors of paint and paper for different looks to your prints. You can also make a print, and then make another print with the leftover paint. It will have a different appearance than the first print, which I think is clearer, and often looks better. 
6. If you like, number your prints: 1/3 means that this print is the first I made of 3 using this design.
7. Allow paint to dry before displaying your prints.