Potato Printed Valentines tutorial

~ this week I was asked to come up with a fun, easy, non-comercial kids valnetine project as a guest blogger over at Live mom, a cool local blog for Austin mommas. Live mom's post will cover her frustration with the commercialization of valentine's. I will link to the post when it goes up. But for now here is the craft kiddie project

materials
heavy paper like poster paper or cardstock
hole punch
ribbon
washable paint
brayer ,brush, or sponge
potatoes
small cookie cutters


process
***mama prep #1-3; depending on how young your rascals are you may let them help you
1.Make a heart template, then trace your heart onto your heavy paper and cut out your hearts.hole pouch around the outer edge of the hearts .
2.cut your potato stamps. you can look at my belle and burger blog post about potato printing to get In depth instructions. I found a sweet little valentine cookie cutter set for under 3bucks at the Grocery.

3.set up the work area. Put your paints in a tray, let the kids chose but keep it simple maybe just 2 mixable colors. Cover your work space with paper. Have and area that will be ready to hold the potatoes between printing.
4.Let the printing begin. For the younger artists this need only be a process oriented project. Its fun to use food in art and fun to make a mess. Once all your hearts are dry.You can either move on or add another layer of color. Clean all potatoes gently.

5.Message of love. After the printed images have all dried you can add a message if you like. We used some stamps we had but your could use printed words from magazines or your computer. You could also use stencils or just hand write them on. what ever tickles your fancy.
6.Lace your cards. Tie a bow or leave a hanging loop at the top of your valentine.

7. send out your valentine wishes