The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Potato Print Heart Cards

by

We carved a potato to make a simple and easy heart stamp for printing onto Valentine’s day cards! 

 This method of potato printing is very simple and easy and is great for preschoolers as they can grip the potato easily and firmly as they work.

 Cut a potato in half and choose a cookie cutter that will fit inside the circumference. We used a small heart. Push it firmly into the potato and then pull it out again.


 There should be a nice, deep imprint of the shape in the potato. Use a sharp knife to cut away the outside of the shape. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, as long as the original shape is intact!


Wipe the surface of the potato until it’s fairly dry, or else it won’t absorb paint very easily and may slide all over the paper. Set out some ordinary paint into shallow dishes and demonstrate how to dip the potato into it and then print directly onto paper.

 Cakie chose to use a paintbrush to apply the paint onto the heart shape that way, and it worked very well. Either method is fine.

 She then enjoyed printing the stamp over and over on lots of sheets of paper. We used two colours which, when slightly mixed together through the process, looked really beautiful!

When they were dry I cut around the shapes and we stuck them onto some plain cards.
We don’t really “do” Valentine’s in a big way over here in the UK, but we definitely will be giving one each to Daddy, and they will make lovely cards for other occasions too!


I’m pretty sure that Cakie will do some special mark-making in at least 25 of these ALL for Daddy! Hmpff 😉

Learning links:
  • creativity: experiment with painting and printmaking using a range of media and materials, explore colour mixing
Cakie: 3 years 4 months
Pop: 21 months

Comments

  2. Rachel T says

    Hang on a minute. Did I just see you pop up on Apartment Therapy?
    Amazing! Surely this counts as hitting the blogging big-time, right? 😉

    So pleased to see your lovely blog getting so successful.