When I wrote about the easy DIY canvas frame I built for our beachy glam master bedroom, I promised to share the tutorial for my DIY potato print art. This artwork was heavily inspired by this stunning custom piece by Rebecca Atwood that hung in Emily Henderson’s previous home. And I guess this isn’t so much a tutorial (it’s a really simple project) as a description of my process. Hopefully it inspires you to create some potato print art yourself!

Of course I had to put my own colorful stamp on it, and instead of staying in one color family, I used a palette of blues, greens, and pinks.

I like to include my kids in my DIY projects whenever possible. It allows us to spend time together while I get stuff done, and they also get their creative juices flowing. Some of my favorite memories from growing up are working on arts and crafts projects with my mom, and I hope my kids will look back on their childhood and feel the same way.

Once I built my canvas, I cut the extra canvas pieces into rectangles for my kids to use for their art projects. We grabbed a bag of potatoes from the grocery store, and prepped our projects. The kids wanted to do fun shapes, so I used cookie cutters and a knife to create fun “stamps” for them.

These pictures were taken in the evening in low light, so I apologize for the horrible lighting situation.

And yes, those are garbage bags on my children. Cut a hole for the head and two for the arms and you have a perfect painting “smock!”

Once the kids were busy stamping their beautiful potato print art creations, I started to work on my own. First, I mixed my color palette. I took blue, pink, and green, and mixed them with varying amounts of white to create three different shades of each color.

My initial plan was to dip my crescent shaped potato stamps (one potato cut into quarters… halved and then halved again the other way) into the paint, but I quickly discovered that the paint coverage went on much more evenly if I brushed it on, thus the plethora of brushes.

I began stamping with green and blue, as I wanted those to be the primary colors in the potato print art. I originally planned to use one stamp for each color, but decided I wanted more color and size variation (each stamp was slightly different from all of the others), so I started reusing each potato print art stamp for each color, and I loved how when the blue and green mixed, it created another color completely… So many beautiful shades of green and blue!

I have to admit that I panicked a little about putting that first pink stamp on the canvas. I knew once I did it, there was no going back. Because I was using such a variety of colors, I did a mini mockup of the color placement on a piece of copy paper, using that little purple stencil paintbrush you see above. I forgot to snap a picture of it, but that gave me the confidence to finally go ahead and put that first pink stamp on the canvas.

Once I did, I majorly second guessed that decision, but there was no going back, and once the piece was finished, I felt like the pink was a good choice.

The basic gist of the process is cutting your stamps, picking your color palette, possibly planning out your stamp placement on a mockup, and repeatedly stamping the canvas until you are done. So simple, but I love the impact!

In the center of the canvas where there was more give to the fabric, I placed my left hand under the fabric and pressed the stamp into it with my right hand in order to get a more even stamp. A little variation is good, but I wanted to make sure most of the crescent shape was visible. Also, if you zoom in, you can tell that where the frame is on the edges, the stamps didn’t take perfectly. I like the imperfections, but if you are looking for a more uniform feel, you’ll want to be aware of that.

I really love how the crescent shape has a vaguely aquatic feel, without being too “themey.” And the colors really tie together everything else happening in our colorful room.

So what do you think? Is this potato print art a DIY you would tackle? I’d love to hear in the comments below! And don’t forget to pin this post for later reference!