HOME TOUR

These sweet stamped bags are perfect for Valentine’s Day and my boys are excited to take them to school for their classmates. Easy for both kids and adults alike, the stamped “flowers” using bok choy of all things, adds whimsy to these simple white paper bags.

Start with picking up some baby bok choy at the grocery store. Crazy right!? We always have some in our refrigerator because I put a whole baby bok choy in our fruit smoothies which we have several times per week. It’s flavorless so no one can tell it’s in there and it adds some amazing nutrition. Every time I cut the stem off I think, “this would make an amazing flower stamp.”

I picked up these mini white bags from Target because they were just big enough for a Valentine’s Day card, little surprise and lollipop. I was super excited to find these “Wholesome” brand of lollipops at Target too. I usually find them at Whole Foods, and prefer them because they’re free of artificial coloring, flavors and high fructose corn syrup. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, these ones are heart-shaped.

Take a baby bok choy and cut the bottom stem off. Using your fingers, gently separate the “petals” so you get more of that flower look. Use a rubber band to keep the bok choy together making it easier for little hands and giving you a stem to hold on to for stamping.

Prepare your paint. I wanted a soft coral/peach color for these stamped “flowers” and mixed some paint together to get the color I wanted. I filled a paper plate with paint on one side and left blotting room on the other.

Get those little ones ready to do some stamping and relinquish control. They’re going to be blotchy and smeared and made with love by little hands. And that’s the lovely in it. We found if we truly stamped them in the paint, the paint was a bit heavy and you end up with one big blotch. Painting the color on to the bok choy stem gave us a better looking “flower” print and lets you add different colors for two tone “petals”.

We let the stamped bags dry and then filled them with little valentine treats–a card, special gift (in this case an eraser, nothing fancy) and tied a lollipop to the outside. It’s a sweet little Valentine’s Day craft to do with your littles using some inexpensive Target finds and captured by the uber talented Madison Rae Photography. You can see last year’s Valentine’s Day Goodie Bags here.