Leave-Behind: DIY Stamp Tray

I once bought a lot of stamp sets but they were hardly ever used by Ladybug Girl.  I thought they were the easiest starter-material for art, but toddlers tend to go bam-bam-bam and the resulting picture is not at all satisfying.

I wanted to get more use out of the stamps so I made an inviting, easy-stamp tray:

The idea is to have a cushioned surface (like a bunch of paper) that makes it easier for the design to stick.  I had all these on-hand: one of our trays, a foamy placemat from Ladybug Girl's 2nd birthday celebration, and any pen.

Now add a little helper.

I asked her to trace around the tray.  She loved it!

Some angles are hard for my little lefty, but when I flipped sides, she got it!

Cut out and just eyeball any extra length or width.  Now it's a perfect stamping tray!

While Ladybug Girl got busy cutting, I got busy putting leave-behind trays together.

This one was quick.  Rip out a workbook page and choose a stamp to mark her answers.  As you can see, this was her first attempt.  Maybe I should have doubled up the placemat.

If she were younger, or didn't know how to read yet, I would make more of an effort to create a match-the-stamp game.

The next one I put more effort into, and it has lasted weeks.  I eyeballed what animal stamps we had and made a story like Noah's Ark for Ladybug Girl to help finish with stamps.

Thought I'd start off the alphabet stamps use with her name.  For toddlers, they can match letters.

Getting better...

And better!

After four trays of this, Ladybug Girl became impatient and excited: "where's the end of the story?!".  So that's out on our shelves now.  Then I'll put the book together and make a big deal out of us being author and illustrator!

The stamp trays also double up as a nice surface to color on.  I've made two more bigger trays since.

At least this has stopped me from buying any more stamps.  Or postponed the need to garage sale them.  

I'd like to think of other ideas to make these stamps earn their shelf space but usually they just come on a whim.  Help?  What on earth do moms do with stamps?

Besides the obvious, I mean.