Posts Tagged ‘potato stamp’

Holiday Cards of Potatoes Past

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Holiday Cards 2005 by Amy Crook

Holiday Cards 2005 by Amy Crook

In years past, when I had more time on my hands, I used to hand-make all my holiday cards individually — with potato stamps. I used watercolors to brush colour onto the carved potato pieces, and then stamp them out. This particular set took 3 separate stamps, the figure, the gift, and the halo, each of which had to be done as a separate step. I think I made about 100 of these, and that was the year I decided never to do it this way again.

Hope you’re having a great holiday season!

Categories: Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Whimsical and Strange
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Potato Fairy

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Potato Fairy by Amy Crook

Potato Fairy by Amy Crook

When I first started making my own holiday cards, I carved stamps from potatoes, mushrooms, and sponges, and painstakingly hand-stamped dozens of cards — one year I sent nearly 100 cards out! I’ve since graduated to doing one original and printing the cards from that, though I still sometimes add a bit of hand-painted flair to personal cards.

This was the test print for one year’s cards, done using watercolors (including metallics) painted onto those rough handmade stamps. I chose the crouching fairy, though as I recall the cards didn’t get the mushroom-stamped object he’s crouching in front of. I was experimenting with different methods for making the wings, so there’s some extra texture added as well, in metallic gold, red-violet and softly brushed-on blue-green.

Potato Fairy, 9″x12″ watercolor on sketchbook paper, not for sale.

Categories: Angels, Cthulhu, and Other Myths, Daily Art, People, Figures and Faces, Series and Books
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