Mr. Potato Head writes a love letter.

Here’s a different and unique way to personalize some of your DIY project! Potato stamps! This is old school, I remember making potato stamps as a kid!  They are fun, easy, family friendly AND you can make any shape you want!

Since Valentine’s Day is right around the corner I thought I’d go with a love theme. 🙂

I used just a plain ole Russet Potato or baking potato.

Rinse it off really good and start by cutting off the ends. I peeled some of the skin off the ends but, like to keep some of it on cause its a good gripper when you’re stamping.

After that I used a small kitchen knife to carve out my shapes.

(The entire time I kept wishing I had a pumpkin carving kit, if you have one, get it out, it would be PERFECT!)

Use caution when you are carving it out and make sure to keep it steady on a flat surface, don’t hold it in your hand if you can help it.

My first shape was an outline of a heart! Then I flipped it around to the opposite side and carved some more.

This time carving the word “Love”.

(This stamp I carved for photo purposes only! If you are carving words you need to do them in reverse, that way it will be the mirror image on your paper.)

See how the potato is still very wet and starchy? After, I carved out my design I let in soak in cold water for about an hour. That will pull most of the starch out of the potato and make your carving more solid. (Same technique as if you were making french fries!)

Then you are ready to stamp! Just dry it off really well before sticking it in the paint.

I’m gonna stick with the original Valentine’s Day colors for this project! Red, White and Black.

You can make your print light by dabbing it really good or you can make it bold like mine!

How cool is that?!?

I took it a step further and made a Valentine’s Day banner out of  left over craft paper!

There’s also, some of those beautiful paper roses I made in an earlier post!

Do you remember making these when you were younger?

Try it out! Mr. Potato Head won’t mid a bit. 🙂

xoxo,

Christine Kay