Potato Stamp Valentines

Valentines Day is a funny holiday for us because it's also Jim's birthday. When we were dating and engaged and caught in the throes of newfound love and adoration of each other, it seemed silly to celebrate the holiday because it was my opportunity to direct all the attention and excitement towards Jim. Before our first February 14th together, I stayed up all night making secret cards to hide in his house, on his car, and in his bag so that he would have reminders throughout the workday of how much I loved him. And I tried to make a heart shaped red velvet cake (which had been his grandmother's tradition), except that somehow the mixer exploded, sending two layers' worth of dark red batter all over my little kitchen. At 3 AM. I can't entirely remember, but I think I actually started over and served him cake number two the next evening. I'm not sure I can say that I would still do that. Hopefully that's because I now know that he would rather have me snuggled up in bed:).

Of course, now that we have children, Valentines Day merits its own special season. And because I live in a house of boys, that season is mostly about mail. Has it ever occured to you that Valentines Day is a bit feminine? Boys don't typically wear pink and red shirts covered in ruffles and hearts, you know? They do, however, appreciate the mail truck. And they like to get mail and (in my house) to send it. So our official kickoff to the Valentines Day festitvities has been a throwback to that first, giddy lovefest for Jim: we've been making homemade valentines cards. With potato stamps.

This was my first foray into potato stamping, and it was much easier than I expected. I cut off about 1/4 of the potato to create a nice, large surface for our design. Then I used a sharp knife to cut a heart shape into the potato about 1/2 inch farther (a cookie cutter would have made this easier, but ours was too big). Then I used the knife to carve away the edges around the heart (had I used a cookie cutter, I could have simplified this by leaving it in the potato), revealing our finished stamp. That's it!

We used plain red cards from Paper Source (you could cut down scrapbooking paper from Michaels to make it more affordable, but these came with matching envelopes) and acrylic paint, and made two stamps in slightly different sizes. Big Brother used the two hearts to represent siblings. This is the card that he made for Little Brother.

I was so impressed to see that he could do this project almost entirely by himself (minus the knife part). He quickly learned how to cover the stamp in paint and blot it off, and then how to stamp his cards evenly and carefully. It was really fun to watch him in Valentine's factory mode.

Of course, he also wanted me to take a picture of each one, because each card was designated for a special friend. I think that the one above was for his buddy Dom.

This one was for Elie.

And this gorgeous one was for me. Sniff.

In a fun twist from projects past, he loved making valentines, and stamped and glittered away until he had nearly finished off the package of cards. Getting him to sign them will be another story. Perhaps we'll do one a day:).

The piece below was Little Brother's attempt to get in on the action. I did the stamping, he contributed the smudge. His older brother, however, was very proud and insisted that we document his brother's effort. You can see the artist in the background--he's finding his chocolate chip cookie far more interesting than the show.

It was a sweet way to begin the family love fest. Here's hoping that you'll also get something sweet in the mail this year!