potato stamp tutorial

I had been wanting to make a potato stamp for a while now. When we were thinking of ideas for Dax's valentines, the "tato" stamp again came to mind as something fun to try. I took some pictures as I went and thought I would make a quick tutorial in the event that you want to try this fun activity.



Get yourself a nice size potato. Since my 3 year old was going to be the main stamper, I wanted something to fit nicely in his hand.

Cut the potato in half.


Be sure to cut it in half with a straight cut. I didn't pay much attention and didn't really cut all that straight resulting in a stamp that was not totally flat. Of course, I didn't notice that it was not flat until I loaded it up with paint and and tried it.

Sketch out your design on the potato.


We chose a heart for Valentine's Day. I also wanted something simple for my first try. I just used a colored pencil because that was the first pencil that I grabbed.


Start to carve out your design.


I first traced the design with the tip of the knife going about as deep as I thought the stamp should be. I wanted to make the relief fairly thick because I didn't want the 3 year old stamper to have any issues getting paint where he wouldn't want it. I found it easiest to remove small pieces after I traced the design with the knife tip first.


Continue to remove small pieces until you get the rough shape of the stamp.



With the knife, clean up your edges on the stamp like so.


Time to test it out. My very crafty friend shared this helpful tip. Save your styrofoam that meat comes packaged in to use as a paint tray or craft tray. When the kids are finished just wash and reuse or just throw away.(Thanks Andrea!!)

We used some red paint and some red glitter glue and mixed them together.


Load up your stamp by pressing it into the paint.



Find yourself a cute little helper


and press the stamp onto your paper or card stock.



Press firmly and try not to move it around. Smile because you are actually doing it yourself.


Here it is. Perfectly imperfect. The glitter didn't show up until after it dried and had a subtle effect.


Big brother really wanted to get in on the action too, so to maintain your sanity, use the other half of the potato to make another stamp at the same time and don't let anyone touch them until both stamps are finished!!




Here is what we did with the other half.

Initials, numbers, shapes.... get creative. We stuck with simple this time.



You can get different effects by stamping more than once without loading up paint. More than one color of paint would have been fun too. It was a great time...the possibilities are endless and the potatoes are plentiful:)

happy valentine's day

It was a busy crafting week here at the Noe place. Xavier made valentines for school. Of course we had to do Batman ones:)


There was not room to write the names on the back of these valentines when you are just learning to write so we improvised and had room for a sucker:)

We were also hosting the Valentine Party for playgroup so we made even more valentines.


Dax wrote his name on every one himself!

We saw an idea for Xavier's valentines online and had fun making these together.


It says "Have an a"maze"ing Valentine's Day!

We put up some decorations upstairs and downstairs.


Everyone brought snacks to share and made little valentine holders at the party as a craft




and then decorated cupcakes.

My friend sent me the link for these cupcakes and they turned out so cute. You can find that here.




The real trick to it is to make sure to insert the tip of the baggie or pastry bag down into the cupcake and then squeeze. They were fun!!

After the party we delivered cupcakes and valentines to my friend who does story time at the library as the boys and I just love her!!

After that we took some quick valentine pictures. Not everyone was happy about all the ice and wind.


Dax had just fallen and claimed that the wind had done it!!

Xavier has his school party on Tuesday as it was supposed to be last Thurs. but many of the children didn't bring in their valentines because the weather was so bad on Tues and Wed. they could not go out to get them. And so the love fest continues:)

first school program

Xavier had his first program at school on the 16th and he was so excited about it. We were all invited back to the classroom afterwards for donuts and milk. The class had been practicing for weeks and it showed! I managed to hold Dax on my lap, take pictures and some video too. I did them all, but none of them well! I got a little motion sickness watching the video but I am glad that I tried.

Here is a picture of the 3-4 year old and the 4-5 year old preschool classes. I blurred out the other kids for obvious reasons but can you see that Xavier is clearly the tallest one in all of the classes?? So funny! Technically, he is still 4 in this picture too.


Xavier has just finished his program and is heading back to the classroom.


My mom got the boys matching suits for Christmas but I didn't want to send X to school in his good suit for fear of ruining it so I whipped up a tie for him the night before. It certainly was a hit- people kept talking about it. Actually no one would have known but Xavier volunteered that I made it. I told Steve that the tie was a hit and that I couldn't believe the reaction when people found out I made it and Steve said "Um, normal people don't make ties Melanie." Yeah, I know but anyone who knows me already knows that I am not "normal" so no real surprise there!

Here is Xavier with his teachers, Mrs. Pridemore and Mrs. Jacob. He loves them both!


In addition to donuts and milk, each of them got a goodie bag to bring home with them. Here was our contribution to the goodie bag.



When we got home, I took a couple of pictures of the boys by the tree. When they were not wrestling with one another, they managed to sit still for a few seconds.





The songs they sang in the program were so cute. Xavier was singing this one in particular that starts "The virgin Mary had a baby boy...." Well of course Dax had to sing that one too. His version started like this..."The mergin Nary had a baby boy!" It is soo funny.

bird feeder fun

The boys made bird feeders at Grandpa and Grandma Noe's house. Grandma sent them home with bird feed and they were excited to get them out in the yard.

They filled carefully filled them up


being careful not to spill.



Once full, boy were they heavy:)



They decided where to put them.


And then admired their work:)





We think the squirrels like it more than the birds. What a fun project!