Did you ever make homemade scratch-art paper pictures as a child? I remember making them using coloured pencils with black crayon over the top. They took an age to make and never worked that well. If only I’d known then that oil pastels make it so much easier!!
If you don’t have oil pastels, crayons are a good alternative. They just don’t work quite as well.
Materials
White cardboard
Play dough tools
Instructions for Homemade Scratch Art
Use the oil pastels to add lots of colour to one sheet of card and then rub over the top with a black oil pastel.
Once you’ve completely covered the card in black, you can create your scratch art picture.
Extension tasks – Homemade Scratch Art
Try using a white crayon to draw a picture on a white card. You’ll need to press down very hard. Once you’ve done that, gently crayon over the top using coloured crayons. You should find that the white resists the coloured crayons, giving you a lovely white outline on the page.
For those days when you don’t want to make your own scratch art paper, we highly recommend these ready-made scratch art sheets from Melissa and Doug.
More Art and Science Ideas for Kids
We also love these bunny art pictures from Projects with Kids, or if you’re after a more traditional Easter craft, Red Ted Art has some brilliant Easter bonnets!
Contains affiliate links
Last Updated on July 2, 2025 by Emma Vanstone
I remember doing these as a child myself – you’ve jogged my memory to try them with the kids this half term – fond memories!!!