How to Carve Potato Stamps from Cookie Cutters

An inexpensive craft or art project for toddlers using Tiger Feet  Party cookie cutters and potatoes!

It doesn't matter how many toys your kid has, eventually, they'll get bored of them. All of them. And most likely this is going to happen at the most inopportune time. Like during the middle of an unbearable heatwave when it's too hot to be out in the sun at the middle of the day. That happened to us and here's how I dealt with it:

Callum (the cute bare chested baby toddler up there) loves to be in the kitchen. He loves to help me make dinner and usually, during the day, we get served about 21563546552124 portions of the most bizarre combinations of play food. Our chef's repertoire includes fantastic creations such as fish tea with just a hint of strawberry, pumpkin and tissue fricassee (no, really; he pulls Kleenex's out of the box purely to crumble up and serve to us as dinner) and my personal favorite, broccoli tomato soup. Bottom line: the kid loves his food. Whether it's pretend or real, if food's involved, he's totally there.

So when we have one of those days when every toy we have looks boring and he's tired of slaving over his plastic stove, I try to incorporate actual food into our play. I'm not one of those crafty moms, I would love to be, but me and crafts just don't mix. I have zero artistic ability. If you gave me a bag of toilet paper tubes and asked me to make something, the best I'd be able to come up with would be a tunnel for toy cars. A really long tunnel. Instead of getting depressed over my lack of craftiness, I just go with what I know. I can't tell you how to use a glue gun and we don't have a box of things-to-turn-into-fabulous-projects, but I can work my way around a kitchen and I can encourage my kid to play with his food and explore the versatility of vegetables. They aren't just for eating!

I received a box of wonderful goodies from Tiger Feet Party (a veritable one-stop shop for party planning excellence!) including these plastic cookie cutters:

Photo from www.tigerfeetparty.com

Okay, so here's what you'll need to get crafty with your little one:
2 small potatoes, go for potatoes that aren't too large to fit into your little one's hands
2 cookie cutters
a paring knife
non-toxic, water-based paints (it will get EVERYWHERE & if it's water-based, it'll wash out)
colored paper

To create your potato stamps, cut 1/4 of the potato then take a cookie cutter and press it firmly into the flesh of the potato. Turn the potato on its side and cut through about 1/2 way along the cookie cutter. You want the knife to touch the plastic of the cookie cutter to give you a guide as to how deep to cut the excess.

Remove the cookie cutter and make a few vertical cuts until you reach the point where you cut when the potato was on its side. Chunks of the potato should fall away as make each cut. Keep cutting away until enough of the shaped potato is raised as with a stamp. Next, dip the potato in paint and let your toddler go wild with paints.

Be prepared; it'll get messy! This doesn't even come close to conveying the amount of paint that was all over him, the table and me. But he had fun (and he got his first tattoo!)

And before we got messy and covered in paint, we used the flower cookie cutter to cut shapes out of slices of juicy melon! Went down a tasty treat: 

Tiger Feet Party has so many fab products, you've got to check it out! There'll be another post from me reviewing some of their party supplies in the next few months; be sure to look out for it, but in the meantime, go see for yourself firsthand all of the fab things they've got!