How to Make Children's Paint Stampers from Potatoes

Last Updated: March 7, 2021

Using an ordinary baking potato, a simple drawing, and a knife, you can make two different "stamps" which you may use to decorate everything from T-Shirts to Wrapping Paper!

Steps

1
Choose your potato and cut it in half. Rinse and dry the potato.
2
Choose your designs (you can have one design per potato half.) Keep the designs fairly simple.
3
Draw (or trace) a design onto the flat, cut inside part of a potato half. We will use a heart as an example. Draw a simple heart or cut one from paper and trace it onto the potato.
4
Have an adult use a sharp knife to cut straight down into the potato along the lines of your drawing (about 1/4 inch deep.)
5
Again, with an adult, use the sharp knife to carefully cut away the potato from the sides (about 1/4 from the top edge) inward, up to the lines where you drew your picture and cut into the potato. This should leave a heart in the middle of the flat, cut end of the potato that sticks up above the part you removed with the knife.
6
Dry the potato again (and before each use.)
7
To use liquid acrylic craft paint or poster paint, pour a little paint onto a washable plate (or, use a disposable plate or aluminum foil, etc.)
8
Barely touch the "stamp" (in this case the heart) to the paint and then carefully put the stamp onto the article you wish to decorate (T-shirt, Paper, Gift Wrap, etc.) Don't use too much paint and don't move the stamp from side to side - press down and lift straight up, carefully.
9
Repeat as many times as desired.
10
Before changing paint color, rinse potato and dry thoroughly.
11
Finished.