Romanticize 9: Potato Prints
Use this magical vegetable to customize cards, wrapping paper, and more!
The holidays are right around the corner, so I’m channeling a fun and easy craft I did as a kid to help you leave your mark (literally) on every present you give this season. For today’s Romanticize, prepare to reimagine the humble potato.
The Romanticize
Make a potato stamp.
The Advice
It doesn’t matter what kind of potato you grab, just make sure it’s large enough (especially width-wise in the middle) to carve a stamp design into. You can get two stamps out of one potato—just cut it in half length-wise, and you’ll be able to make a stamp on each half.
For the stamp design, you can use cookie cutters or just freehand with a pen.
Either push your knife into the pen design to carve an outline, or push the cookie cutter into the center of the cut side of the potato half. The idea is for the design to be raised, so carve down the area around it (at least half an inch). The cookie cutter is easier here because you can just cut down to where the metal stops, but it’s not tough to eyeball it. Watch your fingers! The raised design will reveal itself as you carve, and the skin side of the potato becomes the stamp’s handle.
Grab the paper you’d like to stamp—you can use wrapping paper, butcher paper, newspaper, cards…the sky’s pretty much the limit. Just be sure to choose a paint that contrasts enough with the color of the paper so your stamp stands out.
Lay out the paper, squirt a small pool of water-based paint onto a plate, and place your potato stamp-side down into the paint. Dab the stamp once on a paper towel or the clean side of the plate (this helps get rid of paint globs) and then press down onto the paper. You can get a few stamps out of one paint application.
If you’re using the paper as wrapping material, let the paint fully dry first.
Here’s a reel I made of the process, to illustrate.
The Inspiration
I used a bunch of materials I had sitting around in my craft cabinet—some striped white and speckled gold wrapping paper, and pearlescent white and metallic gold acrylic paint. I thought the opposing contrasts would look really nice on two gifts wrapped beside each other.
The carving of the potato was a lot less difficult than I imagined—they’re pretty soft, so it’s just a matter of getting your initial design outline right (I used a star cookie cutter for one and then freehanded a heart for the other).
I was a bit less patient with the stamping—I didn’t give it that crucial dab on a paper towel between the paint and the paper, which caused a lot of globs. I adore the imperfect look of the resulting designs, though—how the paint doesn’t completely fill in the shapes, and it’s thicker in some spots. It’s the mark of something handcrafted!
I’d love to know the results of your romanticize—feel free to share your experience in the comments, or tag me on Instagram. Until next Wednesday, fellow romantics!