It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, which means cue the potato painting projects! Today, Veronika and I painted with potatoes in a way that made a delightful mess, plus it got us outside in a first burst of spring warmth.

To set up, you’ll need cooked and cooled potatoes cut into chunks of various sizes. You can use all one type of potato, but for novelty I used one sweet potato and two red ones. Next time I would add in tiny new potatoes, too!

I unrolled a long piece of butcher paper on the grass and then set out plates with paint in the colors of the Irish flag: green, orange, and white. To make your artwork, pierce each soft piece of potato with a craft stick and dip in paint. Hold it up over the paper…

…then drop!

Veronika immediately needed a turn. She loved that she could dip the potatoes in the paint without getting messy thanks to the craft stick handles. The first time she held a potato aloft over our paper, she seemed unsure that she was really supposed to drop it.

At first, she would bend down and use it more like a stamp. But then she grew braver, and…

Drop! Each landing potato makes a great splattered print on the paper. Have fun experimenting and dropping the potatoes from different heights, as well as using them like stamps with the craft stick handles.

We even covered one round red potato with paint and then rolled it along with a craft stick as a paddle, leaving a trail of green paint behind. As mentioned, I think small new potatoes would be fun dipped in paint and then scattered down onto the paper, so we’ll add those in next time.