• white paper
• fine point markers, crayons, or colored pencils
• patterned wallpaper scraps
• scissors
• pen to write poem or words

Materials - For the name tile (artist's signature):

• large square eraser
• scratching tool such as a heavy un-bent paperclip
• red ink pad (for a homemade pad, drop paint or food coloring on a paper towel)

During his lifetime he called himself by more than 30 names. The last name he gave himself was "An Old Man Crazy for Art".

Hokusai was well known for sketching and painting ordinary daily scenes from his life and for making woodblock prints, which he later painted with watercolors or inks. He designed and illustrated lovely small greeting cards called surimono. Surimono were intended to be given as gifts from one friend or family member to another, especially as a greeting for a happy new year or other holiday wish. A poet would write the special verse or saying on the paper, and an illustrator like Hokusai would interpret the poem through drawings. Young artists do both: be the poet and be the artist.

1. Read some greeting cards out loud to get some ideas about nice greetings. Then make up a greeting and write it on the white piece of paper. The greeting should be easy to illustrate. For example, a greeting might say: May your day be filled with sunshine. Or, to rhyme a greeting card, one might say: I love you in the morning, I love you in the night. I love when you're wrong, and even when you're right. NOTE: If the artist is too young to write, an adult can take dictation and write it on the card for the young artist.
2. When the greeting has been written on the paper, illustrate the greeting with a "surimono" (a drawing and decoration) for the greeting card. The greeting and illustration may be on the front of the paper, folded inside the paper, or any other card design of choice. Add wallpaper scraps as colorful borders on the card to look like fancy Japanese papers.
3. To "sign" the greeting card, scratch a design into a square eraser with a paperclip that has been straightened or use some other small tool. The design could be scratched to look like Japanese letters, one's own initials, or any design at all.
4. Press the scratched design into the red ink pad. Then press the inked eraser on the greeting card in the lower right corner. Now the card is signed in the same fashion Hokusai used over 200 years ago when he signed his name.
5. Give the surimono to someone special. It is a one-of-a-kind work of art!