Sweet Potato Stamps

Earth day is coming up so here is a little project that makes 'going green' a little more fun. 

I have been looking for cool reusable shopping bags for a long time and It is really hard to find any that are cute and not super expensive so I decided to make my own, well print my own using a hand carved stamp. 

What you will need:

Canvas Tote Bag

Sweet Potato 

Paint

Paint Brush

Pencil

Sharp Kitchen Knife / Exacto knife

Cut a sweet potato in half long ways ( try to keep it as straight as possible so that the stamp will transfer evenly)

With a sharp pencil draw out what you would like your stamp to be, I chose an arrow because it is simple, but if your design is a bit more complicated or you don't trust your drawing skills you can always trace an image. 

Trace your drawing with an exacto knife making sure to cut straight down 

Then score out from the design making cuts that extend from your design out to the edge of the potato straight down into the pros. 

After you have finished scoring take a sharp kitchen knife and shave off a layer of potato all the way around your design. The scores you made will help a ton because you can cut around your design in small manageable pieces. 

Once you have removed all of the excess potato around your design, with the exact knife, you can go in and add extra details and smooth edges. 

When you stamp is complete take some paint and with a brush paint it onto the raised part of your stamp. I recommend doing a few practice stamps on some scrap paper to make sure that it looks how you want and how much pressure to apply. 

Then stamp away!