Potato Stamps

Materials Required:

• 1-5 Small to Medium Potatoes
• Paring Knife
• Construction Paper
• Poster Paints
• Paper plate

Potato stamps involve paint, which can be very messy. Be sure you protect your floors and attire before beginning. Also, creating stamps involves cutting potatoes. While your child can exercise creative input and use the finished stamps, only adults or older teens should wield the knife for the actual cutting.

You do not need to wash or peel the potatoes, but can if you prefer. You will not be consuming any part of the actual potato.

To create potato stamps, first cut the potatoes in half widthwise. If you are working with more than one potato, you will have more options about designs, but even a single potato can yield two stamps – one from each side.

After the potato is cut, discuss design options with your child. The potato currently can be used as a circular stamp without any further cuts. But by using the paring knife to carefully remove pieces, you can create any shape or design imaginable.

To create a square stamp, use the paring knife to cut out the shape of a square on the exposed face of the potato. Then carefully cut away the potato outside of the square. When finished, you should have a raised square on the open face of the potato. Cut any design you like and remove the excess from the remainder of your potatoes to create additional stamps.

Pour a bit of poster paint onto the paper plate. Then grasp the potato by the rounded end that has not been cut. Carefully dip the raised shape on the exposed face into the paint and press the end firmly onto the construction paper. Lift the potato away and the cut out design should be stamped brightly onto the page.

Let your child stamp as many pages as he likes and show him how to create pictures using the variety of shapes. When he is finished, proudly display his artwork and throw away the stamps. It is simple to create another set for next time.