Potato-Stamped Cards

With a few good-size potatoes and assorted miniature cookie cutters, you and your kids can make personalized cards for any occasion.

With a few good-size potatoes and assorted miniature cookie cutters, you and your kids can make personalized wrapping paper, cards, T-shirts, place mats, and napkins. Choose large potatoes that, when halved widthwise, have a surface wide enough to accommodate a cookie cutter. Place the cookie cutter on a table, cutting side up. Center the potato over the cutter and tap, pressing the cutter at least 1/2 inch into the potato. Using a sharp kitchen knife, cut the excess potato flesh away from the cookie cutter, making slices perpendicular to the cutter; this is a job only for adults. Once the excess potato is removed, pull out the cookie cutter.

To form the center of a flower or another design, hollow out with a melon baller. Potatoes bleed, so wipe each surface dry with a towel before inking and stamping. Make sure to use the proper ink; if you're working on paper, both pigment- and dye-based inks will work, while fabric requires dye-based ink. For paper designs, place a piece of felt beneath the piece of paper to cushion the surface; this will result in a crisp, even print.

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Stamped Wrapping Paper

It's easy to create elaborate designs on wrapping paper using a rubber stamp and an ink pad.

Enclose gifts for your wedding party, or favors for your guests, in handmade wrapping paper covered in impressions made with a square rubber stamp.

But don't save this project for the last minute, when wedding preparations will be filling your every spare moment; paper can be prepared in advance.

For a uniform pattern, stamp a large sheet of paper repeatedly with the same stamp, leaving a small space between each impression.

Or stamp just the center of a piece of wrapping paper. If your box and stamp are the same size, you can just stamp the top. If the box is larger than the stamp, the pattern can trail down the sides.

A stamp rolling pin also makes an attractive pattern. We applied several different colors to a sheet of white paper to create a muted design. Store stamped pages flat.

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Pencil Stamps

Instead of using your pencil eraser to make marks disappear, turn it into a stamp and make playful pictures appear on cards and wrapping paper.


Just press the eraser into an ink pad, and stamp polka dots onto paper. Or cut the eraser with a utility knife to create different looks: Half an eraser makes a half-moon, and a third creates a delicate crescent. We stamped colored kraft paper and blank card stock, and added stems to flowers with a green pencil.

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Hand-Stamped Stationery

Design invitations and cards for any occasion using basic, store-bought cards.

Tools and Materials


Grass, butterfly, and flower rubber stamps

Ink pads in assorted colors

Blank thank-you notes, cards or notepads

Stationery How-To

Place stationery on a large piece of scrap paper. Stamp grass motif across base of stationery, overlapping imprints if necessary. Add flower and butterfly accents. To create envelope seals, stamp rows of perforated stamp paper. Punch out designs, and adhere to envelope with glue stick.

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