Martha and her young friend Tasha Campbell develop a quick way to add a bit of Irish spirit to a St. Patrick’s Day meal: green shamrocks made with rustic potato prints. This project can be started and finished while a stew is simmering in an oven, so consider printing these cheerful good-luck symbols on napkins, placemats made from masking paper, and place cards.

Technique

Making a Shamrock Potato Print
Potatoes
Heart-shaped cookie cutter
Scalloping scissors
Paring knife
Masking paper (available at auto-supply stores)
Green inkpad

1. Slice off one end of the potato. Press a heart-shaped cookie cutter into the potato. Remove the cookie cutter. Using a paring knife, cut around the perimeter and remove the excess potato. Pat the stamp dry with some paper towel.

2. Using a pair of scalloping scissors, cut a clean edge on the 18-inch by 15-inch masking paper. Using a ruler, place marks on the mat to indicate where you want the shamrocks—they should be placed about 2 1/2 in from each corner. Laid out just right, the hearts become the leaves of a shamrock.

3. Ink the potato and with the point of the heart right on top of the mark and the rest of the heart facing outward, stamping one leaflet. Ink the potato stamp again, and stamp another leaflet right next to the first one. Ink once more for the third.

4. Using a matchstick-sized piece of potato, stamp a stem on the shamrock. Work your way around the mat until you have printed a shamrock in each corner.