Kids Craft: Potato-stamped Holiday Cards

It is that time of the year again - the Holiday Season! And, making cards is one of the favorite activities around this time. Penguins are still among the top favorites with Og so it was easy to settle on the theme for the cards.

The intent was to use some of the textured papers we've made over time, especially from Marbling and Bubble Printing, and make simple cards that are easy for the small hands to work on.

The Penguin cards we had made over the years made me rethink the theme, particularly the Potato Stamped Cards, but, I am glad I didn't. These cards turned out way more adorable than I had envisioned in my mind.

Items Used:
Potato, X-acto knife (for making the stamp)
Card stock papers - black and orangish yellow
home-made Suminagashi marbled papers
home-made Bubble print papers
glue stick
scissors - decorative edge and regular


1. Make the Potato Stamp. I prefer to do this alone, away from the kids. Cut the marbled and bubble printed papers to size, as needed.

2. Cut the layering card stock paper to size: I used black, my favorite. Cut the card stock for greeting cards: I had a stash of these bright orangish yellow that seemed a nice contrast to the black. Fold to make the card and keep the stack handy.

4. Assembly line precision seems to excite the little one. We start with a stack of cut-to-size marbled and bubble printed paper, stamp ink, and the potato stamp.

5. He stamps a piece of cut paper first and hands it to me. I add the beak and feet while he is stamping the next piece of marbled or bubble printed paper.

6. Then, one by one, he "colors in" the belly with white oil pastel so that the background does not show through.

7. He glues the finished penguin paper onto black cardstock layer and hands it to me. I glue this assembly onto the yellow greeting card.

8. All that's left to do is glue the "Happy Holidays!" pre-printed pre-cut messages that I had prepared over the weekend.

Voila! In a little over an hour from start, we are done with a set of unique yet similar cards, which we proceed to lay out on the table to admire :)

Since I am too lazy to make envelopes (and they get tossed out anyway), and since these cards are not going to be mailed out, I re-used some tissue papers that I had saved to wrap up the cards and secure it with a holiday sticker to be handed out to friends.