MAKE POTATO STAMP CARDS

I love Valentine’s and making homemade cards for family and the special people in my life. It’s tradition to make Valentine’s potato stamps with my young art students. Potatoes make great stamps impressions. It can be inexpensive to create these stamps. They are easy for little hands grasp and hold. You can carve almost any shape you want out of a potato. So, let me show you how to do this fun craft with kids!

Potato Stamp Supplies:

• Potatoes
• Knife
• Newsprint
• Paint Brushes
• Paints
• Paper or Card Stock
• Napkins
• Water Jar

Potatoes: Russet large ones work best; organic potatoes are even better because they have no pesticides sprayed on them.

Knife: A medium-sized paring knife. Think about safety while working around small kids; consider cutting potatoes before the kids arrive at the workstation.

Newsprint: Use newsprint to lay down and keep the work area tidy.

Paint Brushes: Paint brushes, craft sponges, or popsicle sticks can be used for spreading paint on stampers.

Paints: Tempera, acrylic, watercolor, and natural veggie dye will work.

Colors: For Valentine’s, I usually recommend warm colors like red, pink, purple, white, and teal blue for a nice effect.

Paper or Card Stock: Choose card stock, newsprint, construction paper, copy paper, or any type of stationary cards.

Napkins: Have napkins or rags available.

Water Jar: Use a water jar for cleaning paint brushes between color changes.

 Keeping Mess Down

Warming potato stamping can become a messy project. Staying organized and having everything prepared ahead of time will help keep the mess to a minimum.

4 step how-to Potato Stamp

Here is my 4-step process for setting up and creating with potato stamps. I prefer to prepare everything in advance for younger children, while older children may enjoy being more involved in creating their own stamps.

1. Cut or carve out a heart shape from the potato.
2. Pat the potato dry with a napkin or rag before stamping. Potatoes are root vegetables that contain a lot of water, which is released when cut open. When potatoes are dried, they work much better for stamping and paint absorption.
3. Cover the flat impression side of the potato, the stamping side, with paint.
4. Press the potato stamp onto paper and lift to see the impression left on the paper.

Practice a few times until the paint is thin enough and you achieve your desired shape. With practice, potatoes absorb paint better, resulting in clearer impressions. I always encourage kids to practice on scrap paper before making impressions on nice paper or cards.

Happy Valentine’s Crafting!

xoxo, Spramani

Using Food for Art **Note**

I wanted to leave this comment in case you are concerned about using potatoes for art being a waste of food. Many people view art as wasteful and inaccessible to low-income families. However, through my international travels teaching visual arts, I have found that every region either has an abundance or lacks certain resources to create art.

Please use your common sense; if you are working with children who are hungry and lacking food at home, consider using potatoes for nourishment before using them for art. Alternatively, if you have an excess of potatoes, consider using older, dried-out ones for art purposes. It’s essential to consider the different circumstances in various regions.

In my experience working with numerous countries, many view food as a better option than using non-biodegradable manufactured items for art. Each person has their reasons for using food in art, so it’s important to value your personal situation and exercise common sense when making these decisions.

I personally have lots of local farmer friends that donate their food to me, like in the video below. It was filmed at my friends organic farm, J.R Organic Farms. Joe the farmer educations regionally on the importance of growing organic food.

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