There are so many reasons to try fruit and vegetable stamping: It’s surprisingly creative. It’s easy. It uses stuff you have on hand. Kids can play, too. For Hallmark Designer Ai C., making simple prints with fruits, veggies, and acrylic paint was a chance to explore creating textures and pattern. So she gathered some other Cultural Identity team members and raided the produce section. Try her techniques—it’s a perfect summer project. 

Why try vegetable stamping?

As part of working at Hallmark, we get to do creative renewal workshops. Artists decide the premise and exploration—maybe a certain aesthetic or method of creating. I participated in a texture and pattern creation workshop for Mahogany using chopped up vegetables to make stamps—then another session for Vida to push the designs further.

Supplies for vegetable stamping

• Cutting board

• Very, very sharp knife (a dull knife will make your details mushy)

• Vegetables (try radishes, artichoke, carrot, onion, celery, mushroom, peppers, okra, lettuce, corn, kale)

• Fruit (apples, oranges, melons, kiwi)

• Plant clippings

• Acrylic paint

• Tray, acetate sheet, or paper

• Ink brayer, glass or plexiglass (a brayer helps you get an even coat on the surface of large items)

• Ink pad (for covering small items with ink, instead of using a brayer)

• Paint brush (for adding paint to the surface of items, instead of using a brayer)

• Paper for prints

If you’d like, you can use fabric paint and stamp t-shirts or totes.

Clockwise from top left: Carrot, artichoke, corn, onion, spinach

How to make fruit and vegetable prints

Prep the fruits and veggies

Cut your fruits and vegetables into pieces.

Try cutting at different angles to get different details.

Use the whole thing—inside and out, including leaves.

We’re serious about the sharp knife—it’ll give you the best details.

Cover the veggies with paint

Add a bit of paint to a tray, acetate sheet, or paper.

Roll the brayer in paint to cover it.

Then roll the brayer across the surface of your fruit or vegetable.

Stamp your designs

Press the paint-covered fruit or veg on to your paper. Repeat.

That’s it!

Pro tips

• Try a single color on one or two shapes, and stamp in a grid. 
• To create a pattern, stamp, turn your shape 90 degrees, and stamp again.
• Try a single big, simple shape.
• Layer shapes and colors to make abstract or simple images.
• Play with the ways you add paint to the vegetable—roll it on, paint it on—and how much paint you add.
• Cut simple designs into the surfaces of potatoes, turnips, or carrots.

Want more inspiration? Swipe ideas from these posts about patterns and block prints. And turn your art into gifts: Decorate a bandana, tea towel, plant wrap, or file folders.

Show us your veggie prints! Tag us on Instagram @Think.Make.Share.

Prints by Marcos R. and Brittany B.

— Trish B.