Potato Stamp A Wall For A Stenciled Look, step by step

I did it. I at last completed Clara’s closet stamping project (you know, the one I began here)! And yes, if you could not tell from the title, I made a potato stamp. It was in fact truly lively. Do not roll your eyes. It was. And it was free. In fact this whole project cost me 99 cents since I used one tube of Folk Art Paint in Champagne (a soft and fairly metallic gold color) and two potatoes that we already had (never thought I’d list potatoes as existing Hands-on materials). As for landing on a pattern, last week I shared how my first idea, a $1 rubber stamper from Michael’s, did not work (the rubber stamp pattern was too fine, so it did not read at all in person (although in the photo it was not as hard to see):

And then I moved on to a few freehand painted attempts like imperfect horizontal lines, x’s (aka: kisses), and random little rows of dots made by squishing a small craft paintbrush against the wall:

 

As for my potato stamps, I simply tried a few shapes that I did my best to freehand (from a weird little quatrefoil-ish thing to a star and a bee-hive-ish hexagon). As for the bottom right stamp, I saw this on Pinterest (originally from here), and chose to give it a try. I simply carved a circle first (using the top of a salad dressing bottle as a guide) and then made little pizza-slice slivers around it to leave the asterisk-like shape.

I also saw this celery stencil idea on Pinterest (originally from here) and gave that the ol’ college try too:

Then it was time to test all of my “stampers” out on paper with the Folk Art metallic paint (in champagne) simply to see how they did:

 

Out of all the potential patterns, the little starburst circle one was our go-to. So off to the closet I went, simply to see how it would look on the wall.

I learned that it worked a lot better if I brushed the paint onto the potato with a small craft store brush (so I could remove the excess and prevent globs) as opposed to stamping it into my plate of paint (like you would with a rubber stamper).

Here is a good shot of how the paint looks truly metallic from certain angles. So soft and fairly.

After about an hour I had done the wall with the door on it and about a fourth of the adjoining wall to the left as you face it. Then I had to pause for a Clara nap and the rest of the day got away from me. But she did enjoy the part that I had done once she woke up from her nap:

No worries, I thought. I will simply finish it tomorrow. But in the morning I realized something that sent me into a mild to moderate potato panic. My stamp had sort of withered overnight. Not too crazy like a raisin or anything, but the whole potato was substantially less firm than it was the day before. More like a sponge than a solid stamp. But I chose to give it a try simply to see how it worked out (while holding my breath and crossing my fingers/toes/eyes). My method had to change slightly (since the edges were not as flat as they once were, I had to gently rock my wrist back and forth and up and down as I pressed it down to ensure that all of the starburst pointers got applied to the wall). But miracle of all miracles it still worked.

So onward I pressed. Literally. I must have pressed that potato into the wall 500 times. But it was surprisingly soothing. I know you are rolling your eyes again, but there are some projects that are extremely tedious that I am not a fan of (heck, painting the closet was totally boring) but for some reason I got into a pleasant little rhythm with my potato and my paint brush so it was kind of pleasant. Brush paint on, press while gently rocking wrist back and forth, move over a few inches, repeat. Oh and as for my spacing, I simply eyed everything, but each stamp is about 5″ away from the next one and I simply applied staggered horizontal rows so if you connected the dots it would make a ton of zig-zag chevrons.

I chose as I was stamping to the oldies (yes, I had Pandora on) that it was as good a time as any to think back about the last nearly-15 months with the bean. So I sat/crouched/stood in there stamping my heart out and thinking about hilarious blowouts and first words and lost socks and restaurant meltdowns and all the other good/bad/ugly/remarkable parenting stuff that has come been flung our way since Clara joined the family. Not a bad way to spend two hours.

And guess what? Once it was dry and I granted Clara some closet clearance, she was so excited! She literally hoped to point to every last shiny stamp that was in there and squeal “stah!” (her version of star).

The total time spent on the project (including various rubber stamper/potato/celery experiments and two installments of stamping) came to around three and a half hours. So worth it for the magical little subtly metallic reading nook we are on our way to creating.

Next, we brought in the white shelving systems back in (that we took out before painting):

And at last I loaded in all of her clothes, toys, and blankets. I even tossed down a fluffy faux sheepskin rug from Ikea and some pillows that we already had while adding some of her go-to board books to the little Clara-level corner shelves:

I still want to Hands-on a beanbag (I have pinned plenty of walkthroughs and ideas) but it is fairly darn sweet in there already. And Clara had some lively taking it for a test ride. I think she likes loves it.

As for John’s impression, this convo ensued:

Me: It is cool, huh? What do you think?

John: Yeah, it is truly Sweet Sixteen in there.

Me: What does that mean? It is cheesy? Over the top?

John: No you know… (long pause)… pricey. Like the Louis Vuitton cakes they get. It is truly cool.

Sherry: Huh? (equally long pause) This might be our strangest conversation to date.

I am so glad we all enjoy it (even if some of us do not truly know how to put that enjoy into words coughJohncough). And even my low-cost-o work-with-what-you-have self is kind of shocked at the difference that 99 cents and 3.5 hours made in there (well, more like 5 hours if you count the closet-painting phase too).

Ok, so who is surprised that I got all old school and made a potato stamp? I totally had flash backs of middle school while doing it. Who out there has stamped a wall instead of simply painting or stenciling it? I must say there is a surprising freedom to it since you do not have to carefully place the stencil and make sure that there is no paint on the back of it and that nothing gets smeared or anything. You simply eye it and go. And it kind of looks like handmade wallpaper (imperfect, but kind of ideal because of that). This might be one of my go-to solo projects that I have done in the new house. Simply because it is from me to the bean with enjoy. And quite possibly because it inexplicably reminds John of an pricey Louis Vuitton cake. Sometimes it is the little things…