Potato Painting

Creating a potato painting by making stencils is a fun and easy kids craft project for a rainy afternoon. Just convert a potato into an easy stencil to create a variety of interesting patterns and pictures.

Using a potato as an easy stencil a great way to get younger children to have fun making little cards for birthdays or as thank you cards. It is a good craft project for any age group, but especially appeals to pre-school children.

How to Make a Potato Painting

You will need: a nice firm potato, a sharp knife (or craft knife), a pencil, some poster or tempera paint in a tinfoil dish, paper or card to print on, and some colored crayons.

1. Cut the potato in half and dry it with some paper towel.
2. Then draw a simple shape on it. Hearts, Xs, and circles work well.
3. Use the knife to cut away the potato around the drawing, so that you are left with a 1/3 inch raised design.
4. Blot the potato with paper towel again, then dip the raised design into your paint and stamp it onto the paper.
5. Repeat the process until you have the desired design. The stamps can be arranged to form a pattern or a flower or house. You can add additional detail with colored crayons, eg two stamped circles could become two balloons, just by drawing in the strings.
6. Leave the painting to dry.

Tips

Instead of using a knife to carve out the design, you can use cookie cutters - simply press into the potato after cutting in half, and remove the excess around the cutter.

This kids craft project was suggested by Gill from Grandparents' Cafe - a meeting and sharing place for all grandparents. Thanks!

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