Potato printing - 5 ideas for kids making potato stamps

When the weather is bad, parents want to keep their children busy and creative. The good old potato stamp is a good idea, which you can quickly realize with simple things that are already available in the household. The children often have a lot of fun with the things that are decorated with potato prints.

In our childhood, the potato stamp was only used for paper or just cardboard for printing. Today, the children have completely different options, because in addition to practical acrylic paints that can also be used for wall decorations, there are simple fabric paints with which the little ones can embellish their own gym bags or T-shirts. Your child can also use a normal wall paint for practical potato printing. We will show you all the variants and options for making and using potato stamps yourself. So a rainy afternoon flies by.

material

You need:

knife
brush
water glass
cutting board
cutters
felt-tip pen
Fine sandpaper
Acrylics
Clear coat / spray paint
kitchen roll
India ink box / water colors
finger paint
Cardboard / old wallpaper as a base
potatoes
foam rubber
toothpick
Wall paint
Fabric paint
construction paper
cloth bag

Carve potato stamps – Instructions

Stick with it when young children handle sharp knives. Otherwise, a child can quickly be damaged in the heat of the moment. Even if the little ones play so calmly and peacefully, the tide can turn quickly.

1. Preparation

Have all the tools ready and lay out a large sheet of cardboard or old wallpaper on the table. This will make it easier for you to clean up later. In addition, your child can print better on a slightly more flexible surface. The required potatoes are cut lengthways in the middle. If your child is not yet able to cut straight using a motor, you should do this job.

Tip: For small figures, numbers or numbers, you can also cut through the width of the potato, then your child will have a better grip later on to put the new stamp on.

2. Carve or cut out

Cookie cutters from baking cookies are very suitable for simple shapes. The mold should be pierced at least three quarters into the potato surface. Then the potato around the cookie cutter can be carefully cut away. The cookie cutter can then be pulled out. Possibly you should now do some reworking around the resulting stamp so that no loose or protruding pieces ruin the print.

Tip: If the children are older or older and want to carve somewhat more complicated patterns into the potatoes, small pictures of animals or patterns can be cut out. To do this, the outlines should be drawn on the potato surface with a thin felt pen. Even for real artists, it is very difficult to work completely freehand. Many children have small number or letter magnets, which are also ideal as a template. Here you can easily trace the outline. Incidentally, the letters N and Z only need to be carved once, as they are easy to turn. All other letters must be cut out the wrong way round, otherwise you will get stamp prints in mirror writing.

Free shapes are first drawn and then cut straight up along the lines from above. This prevents part of the shape from being accidentally cut off. Only then is the excess potato cut carefully and slowly around the mold. If the giraffe suddenly lacks a head, this can easily be done with one second small potatoes are grown.

Tip: Accidents happen and especially with animal figures, it is easy to chop off a part of the body that is actually still needed. This is not a broken leg with a potato stamp. Either a second stamp is then used to reprint the missing body part or your child works as a surgeon and simply connects the missing part with the stamp again using a toothpick. So you can also make wider stamps if the potatoes are actually too small.

3. Print – color stamp

Most colors, no matter what the printing purpose, can simply be applied with a brush to the raised surface of the stamp. If a special piece such as a cupboard or a wall is to be printed, a test print should be made on paper. In this way, the offspring can see whether the stamp has succeeded as desired. In many cases there are still small inconsistencies that can be corrected.

Tip: Acrylic paint can also be dipped directly onto the stamp. The color is placed in old yoghurt pots and the potato stamp is then dipped into it. Before each new impression, the potato should also be dipped in again so that the prints are nice and even.

Usually not only one color should be printed, but various exciting tones. The potato can be easily rinsed under cold water. Then it is briefly dried with some kitchen paper and the next round can start with a new color.

Tip: If the little ones get tired, you can continue with the stamping tomorrow. To do this, rinse the potatoes under cold water. The potato does not have to be made super dry. Instead, you should wrap the stamp slightly damp in cling film and put it in the refrigerator.

Potato printing on various materials

Paper was yesterday – today you can have almost everything you find in the household printed with special colors. Both acrylic paints and wall paints can serve very well as printing inks for the potato stamp in addition to the usual colors from the ink box. Perhaps the children will also come up with something they would like to print on. If you even want to use lacquer paint, you should put small disposable gloves on the children so that the paint does not stick to their fingers for weeks.

cloth bag
T-shirt / cloth shoes
Wall / wallpaper
Paper / cardboard
Boxes / boxes

Tip: it doesn’t necessarily have to be potatoes. If many prints are to be made over several days, you can also give the children good foam rubber. The advantage can then also be the size of a stamp made of foam rubber, because the little ones can cut out motifs of very different sizes from the foam rubber.

1. Print on the fabric bag
Thanks to the now very durable fabric stains, your child no longer has to just let off steam on paper. Simple cotton bags, which are available in stores for as little as EUR 0.70, can be individually designed as gymnastics bags or small shopping bags with the potato print. Your child will be happy if you honor his work for some time to come. Depending on the fabric color, the result may still have to be ironed in. Newer fabric colors, however, already adhere to many washes on their own.

2. Stamp T-shirts and shirts
Cotton fabrics in particular can be designed very well with fabric paint. If the potato stamp is coated with fabric paint, it is very easy to print your own pattern. For example, put a large piece of cardboard in a shirt so that the print does not go right through to the back. In addition, your child can print the stamp better and the print image will be cleaner.

Tip: Children get dirty quickly. Many stains cannot be removed with so much effort and stain remover. Let your little Gutenberg print these t-shirts. A few stars crisscross the stains and the stained shirt has become a designer piece for your child.

3. Box management – spice up boxes
With some potatoes you have to too never again buy expensive cardboard boxes to store toys. Your children can conjure them up from normal cardboard boxes themselves. If you or your offspring don’t like the cardboard color, you should first prime the box with wall paint. After drying, the potato print can then bring a fresh, unique pattern to the box.

Tip: Always keep shoe boxes of all sizes. These boxes usually have a practical lid and can be easily converted into boxes. If you tinker with the children, make a few boxes for your own wardrobe. Whether for the fine nylon stockings or a special pair of shoes, the boxes are versatile to use.

4. Wallpaper – border and co.
The wallpaper in the children’s room often suffers from the excessive creativity of the little ones. Now the children have the opportunity to repair the damage. Whether you use wall paint for this or the colorful acrylic paint, which can be used for many purposes, is simply a matter of taste. However, both colors should preferably not be licked off by children’s fingers. If the little ones are at an age when they try everything, you should also use finger paints for children on the walls. After drying, these colors also hold very well on wallpaper.

Tip: The same applies to wall borders for the children’s room, here too, potato stamps offer a nice change. Either your child can design a wall completely or you can draw a line along the wall and let a parade of giraffes, elephants and penguins walk on it. Less complicated prints are more appropriate for smaller children, but stars and moons in different colors also make a child’s room very individual.

5. Pimp children’s furniture

Even the furniture in the children’s room often shows clear signs of wear after just a few months or years. Decals are often stuck on or small carvings decorate the surfaces. If you are planning a day with potato stamps anyway, you can use it to make fun of the furniture. Acrylic paint is also suitable for wooden furniture and sometimes even for plastic products. If you want the stamp prints to last as long as possible, you can send the kids off with fine sandpaper beforehand and let the corresponding areas roughen slightly.

Tip: When the stamp print has dried on the wood, you should lightly coat the area with a little clear spray paint. So your child and the furniture will have something of the redesign for a long time. Always pay attention to a little variety, it looks a bit boring if there are only moons in one place and stars on the other side of the furniture.

Would your child like a colorful flat template with the stamp on a piece of furniture, let it wait a bit before moving on to the next color. This allows the paint to dry slightly and does not run into one another. The individual prints will then be clearer and cleaner.

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