Potato Prints

I've had a lot of fun in my journal this week!  I've done some art exploring via Milliande's Journal January prompts, and art journaling books from my personal library. 

One of Milliande's prompts was to create a journal page using stamps:  hand carved stamps from rubber, linoleum, erasers or potatoes.  I decided to make some stamps using a potato and I had so much fun!  I made three different stamps using one potato and a small paring knife.

I had so much fun with them, that I decorated some copy paper that I had stuck in the back of my journal.  I'll use them as collage items later on in another journal spread.

Here are my finished journal pages.  For the background, I used my zebra inspired stamps to resemble African mud cloth, and I put a border around the page using my triangle stamp.

I applied a light wash of gold craft acrylic to the background, and I blended black and gold craft acrylic to paint in the mask.  The mask still "reads" as black, but by lightening the black with gold, I was able to add black accents to the finished mask.

I added details with red, black, ochre yellow and white Prismacolor colored pencils.  This was a great project to do on a cold, dreary afternoon.  It wouldn't surprise me if you see more potato prints in the future.  The potato was easily carved using a paring knife, but if you have linoleum cutting tools (which I was too lazy to dig out!) or other sculpting tools, those would be helpful too.  Whatever your material of choice, I hope you'll try carving your own stamps.  Remember:  "Celebrate, LOVE, and Create!"