How to Make Potato Stamps

Making potato stamps is a pretty easy project that not only lets the kids use their imagination, but also lets them create great art work to display as posters to hang on the walls, as a design on a T-shirt or even as a greeting card. Read on to learn how to make potato stamps.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Large potatoes
• Sharp knife
• Pen or pencil
• Paint
• Paper

1. Wash potatoes to get off any dirt or fibers that you don't want in your paint later. Each potato will make two stamps, so keep this in mind when you are deciding how many to use.

2. Cut each potato in half. Make the cut as clean as possible, since any nicks in the cut now will be apparent when you stamp it later.

3. Draw or trace the design you want as your stamp onto the potato. You can use a pen or fine point marker for this task. Keep in mind that you are going to have to cut the outline, so do not draw shapes with a lot of tight corners.

4. Cut around the shape you just drew or traced. These cuts only need to be about a quarter-inch deep.

5. Slice from the side of the potato about a quarter of an inch deep towards your shape. Be careful to stop when the extra piece of potato is loose. Do not cut through your shape. You shape should protrude out from the rest of the potato.

6. Pour paint into a shallow dish. Poster paint will work fine if you are making posters or cards or you can use fabric paint to make pillowcases or T-shirts. Follow the directions for fabric paint carefully.

7. Dip the potato stamp into the paint and then press against the paper.

8. Reuse the stamps with different colors of paint after rinsing them under water and drying off completely.