Easy Kids' Art Ideas

I spend a great deal of my free time working with youth in various settings. Church, my library, and as a public educator on my fire department. I was honored at one point to share the duties of being the activities coordinator at my church and it was through that relationship I came to learn the power of arts and crafts. Sure most kids are well to do with basketball or some other outside event and on occasion an old Super Nintendo tucked away in a storage closet will suffice but sometimes you have to go the extra mile. For me arts and crafts generally meant getting someone else to do it because I have all the art ability of a blind pot maker who lost his hands in a really tragic pottery accident.

Of course even A and C had to have some weak points I could exploit. One day while another youth leader who usually handles the crafts decided to take the day off I came to the harsh realization that I would have to find a way to do an art project that would not be to advanced, not for the children of course but for myself. It was then that I started to drift back to my days in first grade where I, like other youngsters lived for art class, mainly because it meant no math class! I started to think about a really cool project that was far from complicated but very fun. All I needed was light colored construction paper, a ton of crayons, and a scraping device. I know an odd combination of items but I swear once we get them started working in the right way you will see how some seriously beautiful art can be created.

Ok let's get our stuff together. First you got to have light colored construction paper. Blank computer paper will do but I like to use pink or yellow or to be honest if you have the pastel style construction paper any of it will work just fine. Now you need to get some crayons. I am never one for name brands but I would suggest you get Crayola brand crayons as opposed to a generic brand. They are a little less waxy and a lot easier to use to get a good coat of color on the paper.

The tricky part is the scraping device. I used wooden dowels that I sharpened in a regular pencil sharpener. You can use anything you find that feels best for the job. Just make sure that you make sure the kids are being safe with a sharp object. Safety first.

If you want you can actually use a stylus that you would use with a handheld video game or even a smart phone. These work good but can sometimes require that more pressure be used to create the project we need.

Now for the fun part. Give each child a nice assortment of crayons and a sheet of paper. The key here is to be creative. Have them use all the colors except black to fill in the paper. I like to do a rainbow like pattern from corner to corner making each strip about an inch wide. This is a good time to teach how you can blend colors and compliment color with other color. I always like to make every project I do with my groups an educational one.

Once all the paper is filled in we can move on to the really unique part of our project. Give them a black crayon and have them go over all of the color they just did. I know seems a bit redundant but you will see how this makes perfect sense.

So now we are looking at a black canvas that was once a beautiful array of colors. Now the real creative juices can flow. Simply use the pointed instrument we mentioned earlier and start scratching away the black. It should reveal the color underneath. Now your group of little wisdom seekers can create beautiful color swirls of art on these scratch off canvases.

Even just simply writing a name on this new art paper will be super fun for even a teenager. I have seen some amazing work and with this technique even the most basic of artist can produce amazing works of art.

I hope you enjoy and have fun.