Potato Printing Gift Wrapping Paper
- Cat's Punky Stuff
- Oct 28
- 5 min read
Having hand-stamped gift wrapping paper for many years, I felt it was time to develop it, as I felt it had the potential to become something very unique and original. As with most of my ideas, I like to look at the simplest, easiest approach and will often consider primary school or ancient man's techniques for crafting a certain medium. I was wandering around Pinterest and came across bubble art (using water-coloured soap to create a bubble image) and potato printing. I immediately had some great ideas for both and felt that potato-stamping gift-wrapping paper, which could then be hand-stamped with ink stamps, would offer the opportunity to introduce great colours, beyond what is available with just ink pads.
SAMPLES AND TRIALS: Introduction to potato printing
What I instantly liked about potato printing gift wrapping paper was that the multi-layers of colour possibilities were endless. Whether I was double-stamping the same shape on top of each other in different colours or overlaying one shape with another, I found that by being really clever with colour, I was able to create absolutely fabulous gift wrap, which was not only fun, but probably the most creative thing I have done in years. The blue stars here are so simple and yet they almost glow. I stamped blue stars in various degrees of blue and then cut
grooves like a star into the potato before restamping again with white and pale blue, roughly matching up the two star prints. This was my first attempt at potato stamping gift wrapping paper.
Below you can see the blue stars after being potato stamped twice, one sample is white on blue, as already discussed and my least preferred dark blues on white. The potato is visible with a star-shaped cut-out in it. Whilst a small, sharp kitchen knife will do an adequate job of carving a spud, I actually used a crafters lino cutter. The red samples show a star stamped over circles and squares and I actually found I really liked the squares just by themselves. After the stars were dry, I used a white acrylic pen to fill in the white within the stars. I also learnt early on that black ink stamping would only really work on lighter colours, allowing them to stand out.
These green squares were the first attempt at stamping in lines. You can see the gaps in between them aren't very consistent, compared to the accuracy of the red squares. The stamps are wobbly and although I really like this distressed style, I learnt I'd need to push harder on the centre of the spud unless you want the worn, distressed look of missing paint from the centre of the square. It also gave me an idea for a later date, to cut out the middle of the square, leaving an unprinted space for an ink stamp.
I really like the endless colour options with these green squares, where I mixed blues and yellows rather than a pre-made green. This meant each stamp was a slightly different combination, making various greens.
POTATO PRINTING BASICS: Tools of the trade
For potato printing all you need is:
Potatoes ( I know, what a surprise!)
Pastry, cookie cutters
Small sharp kitchen knife or crafters lino cutter
Primary coloured acrylic paint, red, yellow, blue and white
Newspaper, kitchen roll and tin foil
Cheap sponges cut into wedges
Brown Kraft paper
MAKING POTATO STAMPS: An old craft revived
Put the potato on a chopping board, cut in half.
Put a pastry cutter on the chopping board, the potato on top and a light push will cut the shape you want. Remove the excess spud so you have just the shape.
Wrap them in a bit of kitchen roll to dry out a bit. If they dry out too much, the middle starts to shrink, which is handy if you want the middle of the stamp to be clear of paint.
Lay down newspapers and fold a large piece of foil in half, it will get messy. Squeeze out an egg-yolk size of each colour, choosing colours to mix together for a variety of shades, e.g. red and blues for purples, or blues and yellow for greens, or yellow and red for oranges, etc.
Do trials before you start the main piece.
Expect to make a mess and start mixing large quantities of paint with a sponge wedge.
Using a fresh wedge, apply a good layer of paint, ensuring you wipe up any paint that has escaped down the side (I quite like this effect though!)
Line up the spud and print. Press down hard, especially in the middle and lift cleanly, holding down the paper as you lift the potato.
IDEAS TO TRIAL: Effective ideas that are a must-try
Colour mixing
Here I was using blue and yellow to make a deep olive green and selected the yellow and green for this stamp. Simply put the two colours on your sponge wedge at the same time and apply. Brushing the sponge back and forth lightly will blend the colours.
Using any colour and white with this technique will give a highlighted and shadowed shape, great for round baubles or berries.
Double, treble-stamping
This technique has tons of potential that I've not yet fully investigated and although it isn't quite right, I can see it being fabulous.
First, I stamped a white square, then, when dry, a circle of green and white, followed by a black ink stamp.
I've added a spiral of white acrylic dots, but they would look better in a circle mirroring the green stamp.
Building layers and adding detail
Here you can see my stamping skills have more unity. This is white and coloured round potato stamps, over-stamped with a black ink snowflake. The full gift wrap sheet goes from lime, olive and fir green to steel blues to French blue. Using a compass I added a circle of white acrylic dots scented around the middle of the ink stamp. Once left to completely dry I will rub out the pencil lines.
(Little secret...I have added an ultra thin black line on the dark curve of the circle, to give some extra depth)
ADVANCED POTATO STAMPING: Combining techniques
Once I had a few trials and tests under my belt I couldn't get the ideas down quickly enough and ended up potato printing for over a week. The more I stamped, the more I wanted to continue with my experiments.
This red flower was a petal-shaped cutter, stamped 8 times, 2 layers of 4. The top four petals had a second stamping with a few grooves cut away. I then free-hand drew with a white acrylic pen and several different black pens of different thicknesses for the loose, free-hand mark making.
Different affects can be achieved by double stamping with both layers wet, or by printing on a dried stamp.
My favourite final piece, showing green to blue shadowed balls, stamped with snowflakes and accented with white dots, with a final layer of random, over-laid snowflakes
At the weekend I did a potato printing workshop and here is a photo of what can be achieved after just two hours of experiments. The ladies thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and plan to print all of their wrap!
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