Looking for a clever way to craft some beautifully unique handmade stationary, or decorative stamps? Look no further than Paula’s favorite root vegetable, the potato! This simple DIY project will have you stamping away in no time.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
-Uncooked potatoes (We recommend sweet potatoes. Because their starch content is so high, they are firmer, and easier to work with, but regular potatoes work fine.)
-Precision knife (X-Acto knives work well, or other smaller, finer blades.)
-Spoon (for scooping)
-Ink pad
-Blank stationary

Directions:
1. Begin by cutting your potato into more manageable pieces. We preferred cutting it into small cubes that we could work with. Depending on the size, you may be able to get two or three stamps out of your potato.

2. Then, decide on the shape of the stamp you’d like to make. We found that basic geometric shapes work the best, like squares, circles, and triangles. However, you can really let your imagination run wild. We’d love to see the shapes you can create. You may find it helpful to draw your shape onto the potato using a pen or a marker.

3. Begin to carve out your shape. Remember that the raised part of the stamp is going to be part that the ink will touch. Since you’ll be using sharp blades, be careful! If little ones are involved, this may be good place for a supervising adult to take over.

You can also get creative with the type of tools you using to carve! Spoons are helpful for scooping out the center of stamps, but you might also want to try cookie cutters, food graters (for texture!), or any other myriad of kitchen tools.

4. Stamp away! Create fun borders for personalized stationary or let children make refrigerator-worthy art! In the photo above, we’ve decorated personalized menu cards for a fun and casual dinner party. We went a step further, by inserting a fresh sprig of green through two punched holes for an unexpected pop of color and texture.

Now get stamping!