Make Starry Night Greeting Cards

Show your child how to make his own cards, embellished with dazzling constellations, giant galaxies, and colorful planets. And the best part: you won't have to visit a stamp or craft store to make them. Have a few potatoes on hand? How about a knife? Paint? Your child will be fascinated by his ability to make his own stamps with just a couple of easy-to-find materials.

What You Need:

• Black or blue card stock
• Potatoes (small ones for small stamps and large, russet potatoes for larger stamps)
• Kitchen knife
• X-acto knife
• Paint (white or yellow tempera works great. For something really special, try silver or glow-in-the-dark paint from a craft store)

What to Do:

1. If you're comfortable with your child using a knife, have him cut the potatoes in half.
2. Invite him to draw or stencil a small star shape on the cut end of the small potatoes. (If the potato is too wet to draw on, let it sit and dry for a while, or blot it with a towel.) On the larger potatoes, he can draw a few stars together or even a star-filled galaxy.
3. Have a grown-up carve away 3–5 mm of the part of the potato that’s not the star with the X-acto knife.
4. Ask him to fold the card stock in half to make a greeting card shape.
5. Invite him to apply paint to the potato stamp with a paintbrush, or press the stamp into an ink pad.
6. Finally, stamp stars onto the front of the greeting card in constellation shapes. Invite him to look online and replicate real constellation shapes. Urge him to also come up with some of his own!