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Kids Get Crafty: (London) City Postcards

June 1, 2011

Hello! Today we made our own potato print city postcards! We had lots of fun making them (well maybe I did more than Red Ted… mmh…) and found a lovely book to go with them. Potato printing is a fabulous craft for kids – it is easy and quick to do at home – and usually you have all the materials to hand. Kids can practice motor skills whilst exploring colours. Use cookie cutters to help you “cut out” nice shapes!

They were inspired by a number of things:

  1. Zoe from Playing By The Book’s great postcard swap
  2. The fact we live in London and I wanted our postcards to reflect this (though they look more New York, than London..)
  3. Our Ink Stamp Card Guest Post from a few weeks back
  4. AND a lovely book

Firstly the Book

Follow The Line, Laura Ljungklist

This is a lovely book that will appeal to all “design geeks”… it is wonderfully illustrated and just that little bit different. It starts off in the morning – following a line around the city, through traffic, the ocean, country side etc until it is time for bed. The line becomes skyscrapers, cars, boats etc. It feels quite interactive, as you can “follow the line” with your finger and as you go through the pages you get to count different things (like fire hydrants or cars with lights on). So lots to look at and explore. We love it.x

The Craft

We decided to make a city scape out of potato prints to represent London – of course Big Ben, the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Gherkin would have been better icons, but I am not that skilled in potato cutting!!!! So skyscrapers it was. Red Ted love the book – the only downside was, he kept asking for “extra details” the book had (e.g. a clock) and our potatoes didn’t have these – if we had more time, I could have cut extra parts, I am sure.. and we could have used our potato blocks as “building blocks” and created all sorts of wonders. But we only have postcards to make… so…

It took him a while to get the hang of “not wiggling” the potato. So we did a “free for all” painting first, with sky and sun and prints (he LOVED this bit: Note to self: Red Ted is getting older and needs to explore more by himself… less mummy meddling). Then we did the postcards.

Interestingly Red Ted is now really into colour theory and mixing colours (esp pink!)

I confess, I did a lot of helping – sorry. But we *needed them* for the great swap. And we did do the “free painting”… uhm, so I feel ok about it. Really, I do.

city Potato Print Potato Printing

As it didn’t look that London like, we added a plane with a London banner. Done.

See our extensive collection of fun card making ideas for kids here:

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Filed Under: Card making, Kids Craft 42 Comments

Comments

  1. Zoe says

    June 1, 2011 at 7:59 am

    Beautiful! Really very lovely. So many people have told me I would like this book… our library doesn’t have it, and it hasn’t (yet) reached the top of my wishlist… I hope it won’t be long before you receive your first cards as part of the swap

    Reply
    • Red Ted Art says

      June 1, 2011 at 8:02 am

      We were so into them, that we sent extra cards to friends with children! Hope you get to have a look at the book soon ๐Ÿ™‚

      Reply
  2. Kate from An Amazing Child says

    June 1, 2011 at 11:07 am

    Maggy these are really lovely. We’ve only done potato printing once. I think I must be a little too unco-ordinated because it took such an effort for me to carve them and then when J was stamping with them you couldn’t even make out what shapes they were! So I am VERY impressed that yours actually looked like buildings ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  3. andrea says

    June 1, 2011 at 11:23 am

    I love those post cards! I just love how the buildings turned out:)
    ~jada roo can do

    Reply
  4. Liz Burton says

    June 1, 2011 at 11:35 am

    OK this is a really ‘bad mother’ thing to admit, but looking at your potatoes I’ve thought of a quicker way round it!! do they or do they not look a bit like Potato Waffles??!! Of course, I never feed my kids such junk, err I’ve seen them on the telly…?

    They look great, I love them. Trying hard to think of some icinic building of my town and struggling!

    Reply
  5. Living So Abundantly says

    June 1, 2011 at 11:42 am

    How creative! It looks like a lot of fun. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  6. MyKidsMake says

    June 1, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    those look great! I love the potato stamp idea..and that you made them into buildings {the fingerprint tree is a wonderful addition}. Your cards are fantastic!!!

    Reply
  7. Red Ted Art says

    June 1, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    Liz – Hehe yes they have a similarity with potato waffles!

    Kate – have you tried using cookie cutters – cut the potato in half. push the cutter in and then use a knife to cut round the cutter. lift the cutter off… and hey presto?

    And thank you for the other lovely comments – Red Ted LOVES doing anything with fingerprints!!

    Reply
  8. Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says

    June 1, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    How fun! I ahve not done potato prints like this yet! I think the girls would enjoy it – we must try some this summer! Now to think of what design I can make on a potato! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Always such fun ideas here!

    Bernadette

    Reply
    • Red Ted Art says

      June 1, 2011 at 6:51 pm

      Indeed! It is just remembering which to make!!!

      Reply
  9. Heather @ Local Fun for Kids says

    June 1, 2011 at 8:14 pm

    Hi Maggy – I didn’t have anything from LocalFunforKids to link up. But, this week, I wrote a blog post for a friend’s blog ‘Preschool Buddy’ so I linked that up this week. It’s a really cool sensory box. I hope that’s okay. : ) Thanks, Heather

    Reply
  10. Esther says

    June 2, 2011 at 1:56 am

    Lovely potato stamping! I like the city scene with the flight and the banner!

    I was thinking of a similar art project but I was thinking of using masking tape.

    Reply
  11. Red Ted Art says

    June 2, 2011 at 6:27 am

    Oh Esther I bet it would look lovely with masking tape! Great idea!

    Reply
  12. Janelle says

    June 2, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    That’s fabulous that you made your own postcards. We cheated and sent out regular old printed state cards for Zoe’s swap. I haven’t seen that book, but the author’s newest “Follow the Line to School” is on our “want to read” list this year.

    Reply
  13. Red Ted Art says

    June 2, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    Janelle – that isn’t cheating!! “normal cards” or postcards are just as fab… just I have a craft blog.. so feel I should do something crafty (plus we had fun!!!) x

    Reply
  14. mummiafelice says

    June 2, 2011 at 5:17 pm

    Another fabulous idea! LOVE IT!

    Reply
  15. Rashi says

    June 2, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    Maggy, I really love your potato print idea and the buildings turned out so well. I want to try it too. Thanks for sharing this wonderful activity for kids.

    Reply
    • Red Ted Art says

      June 2, 2011 at 6:05 pm

      Aaah Rashi, you do leave the nicest comments!

      Reply
  16. Red Ted Art says

    June 2, 2011 at 6:50 pm

    Heather – Absolutely and THANK YOU ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  17. Amy @ Hope Is the Word says

    June 2, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    Wow! These are great! I haven’t seen this book, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for it! Thanks for linking up to RAT!

    Reply
  18. Red Ted Art says

    June 3, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Thank you Amy!

    Reply
  19. Krissy @ B.Inspired says

    June 3, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    Awesome idea! We did apple printing a while back, but haven’t done potato.

    You’re welcome to link up with me at my new linky party for kiddos:
    http://binspiredmama.blogspot.com/2011/06/look-listen-read-play-e-is-for-elephant.html

    Reply
  20. Eclectic Musings says

    June 3, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    What a great idea! I remember doing potato prints in school. I must try this with my kiddos. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  21. Red Ted Art says

    June 3, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    Krissy – done!
    Eclectic Musingshttp – – Oh I do hope you have a go!

    Reply
  22. creativejewishmom/sara says

    June 6, 2011 at 7:39 am

    love this one, thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday and finally came to your blog when I could actually link up on your party, yippee! All the best, Sara

    Reply
  23. Red Ted Art says

    June 6, 2011 at 8:02 am

    Oooh lovely to have you visit “just in time” for the linky, Sara ๐Ÿ˜‰ and thank you for your fab party each week too!

    Reply
  24. jfb57 says

    June 7, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    I can remember doing these when I was little but they never looked like these fab ones! Great for all ages. I can imagine some really artistic ideas from the older pupils. Thanks Maggy!

    Reply
  25. Didineadoree says

    June 7, 2011 at 7:46 pm

    Hi !

    We have well received your beautiful postcard and we have enjoyed it.

    Rose loves to send and receive letters and postcards, so if you give me your address, we could send you a thank you letter.

    Lots of love from France !
    Adeline and Rose

    Reply
  26. Callie Feyen says

    June 7, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    What a great activity! Those postcards are gorgeous! Wish they sold those in the drugstores! ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  27. Isil says

    June 7, 2011 at 9:33 pm

    Many thanks for linking up to Book Sharing Monday.We love this book too and your cards are very pretty ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply
  28. mermaid says

    June 8, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    Lovely postcards! So when can I buy some then?:)

    Reply
  29. Aimee says

    June 9, 2011 at 1:47 am

    Printmaking with food is oh so fun! Again thanks for linking up at The Sunday Showcase!
    Aimee
    Classified: Mom

    Reply
  30. Book4Learning says

    June 9, 2011 at 7:58 am

    Great project!

    Reply
  31. Red Ted Art says

    June 9, 2011 at 9:08 am

    Aaaah thank you all for your kind comments.. and hehehe they are a “limited edition” only! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
  32. Anne@LittleSproutBooks says

    June 17, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Catching up on some neglected links. Thanks for linking up at Feed Me Books Friday! We found Follow the Line at our library and LOVED it! Your postcards turned out super cute!

    Reply
  33. Lisha says

    January 29, 2014 at 4:12 am

    Great idea…although I wonder if I could cut out building shapes so neatly! Any tips or tricks?

    Secondly, have you tried painting with beetroot? This same idea could be extended to moist beetroots and you don’t even need paint! Naturally pink buildings perfect for Valentine’s Day!!! ๐Ÿ˜€

    Reply

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