leopard potato prints

You know, potatoes are getting sleepy-eyed, bored by their star-stamping existence.  I empathize with the potato’s woes.  There’s much more to potato prints than that.  And so, right here, right now, I’d like to give the plain potato a chance to be in vogue, turn heads, and catch(more) eyes.

When leopard print made its comeback on the runways three years ago, I really didn’t anticipate it would hit the shelves and racks of mainstream shops as pervasively as it has.  To my shock, leopard is massive these days (I thought the big trend would be velvet, but I’ll delve into that another time).  You can find the print on nearly anything that has a surface.

Here’s how you can convert every known object into a lovely leopard.  Take some small, skinny potatoes (I used russets, which were conveniently growing sprouts in my cupboards, yearning to be used as stamps), and cut them into blobs and blotches that look like the above.

A great tip when carving the center: use your knife to mince the center and a butter spreader knife to scoop it out.  The butter spreader knife has a great edge for this purpose: not too dull that it can’t scoop and not too sharp that it will accidentally destroy the areas that you need.

You’re ready for stamping!  When stamping, I first used my large blob stamp, randomly placing it on the page, using brown paint.  Then I used my small blob to do the same thing.  Then I went over the large blobs with my large blotch stamp, using black paint.  I finished it off with my small blotch stamp.  And it’s done!

Now, excuse me while I go on a stamping-spree!!!  Over the next few days, I’ll post found household items roaring for a leopard identity.