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This scrape painting penguin craft for kids is a fun winter art activity using black and white paint and a simple scraping technique. Easy, low-prep, and kid-approved.
Scrape Painting Craft
If you’re looking for a fun winter art project that feels a little different but is still easy to prep, this scrape painting penguin craft for kids is such a great one to try. In the art room, we love introducing kids to new techniques, and paint scraping is always a favorite. Scrape painting has been pretty popular lately, and it’s easy to see why! Kids love the movement, the texture, and the surprise of seeing their penguin appear as they pull the paint down the page.
While scrape painting is often done with a small squeegee, you can easily use a folded piece of cardstock, thin cardboard, or even an old credit card or gift card instead. That makes this craft simple, low-prep, and perfect for classrooms, art days, or cozy winter afternoons at home.
Kids start by making a black rainbow shape with a line of black paint and adding a blob of white paint underneath, then scrape the paint downward to form the penguin’s body. The process is quick, satisfying, and very forgiving. If a little black mixes into the white, that’s totally okay. This is more about enjoying the process of scraping paint than aiming for perfection.
Materials Needed To Make A Popsicle Stick Artic Fox
- Cardstock, white
- Cardstock, pink and orange
- Craft Paint, white and black
- Pipe cleaners, colors you desire
- Pom Poms, colors your desire
- Googly Eyes
How To Make a Paint Scraping Penguin
Step 1: Prepping the Penguin Body
- Place a piece of newspaper or parchment paper under your cardstock so the extra paint has somewhere to go when you scrape (and not all over your table). Paint a simple rainbow or upside-down “U” shape with black paint on the middle to lower end of your paper. I repeated this step three times on my cardstock to make three penguins. Placing the black shape higher or lower on the page will change how tall your penguin ends up.
- Next, add a small glob of white paint about an inch below the black shape. You don’t want the white paint touching the black—leaving that space helps create the separate black head and white belly sections of the penguin.
Step 2: Paint Scrap the Penguin Body
- Using the folded edge of a scrap piece of cardstock, a mini squeegee, or even an old credit card, get ready to scrape the paint downward. Your scraping tool should be about the same width as your “U” shape since you’ll be pulling the paint down in one smooth motion. Don’t worry if some of your black seeps into your white! This is meant to be fun and imperfect!
Step Three: Add Personality!
- Cut a small nose shape from orange cardstock.
- Using a hole punch, punch two pink circle cheeks for each penguin you are making.
- Glue your nose, cheeks and googly eyes to your penguins body.
- Hot glue a trimmed pipe cleaner and pom poms to either side of your penguins head.
This paint scraping penguin craft is one of those projects that feels fun from start to finish and never turns out exactly the same! It’s easy, forgiving, and perfect for letting kids explore without worrying about being perfect. We love process art and this crosses all the boxes! Whether you’re doing this at home, in the classroom, or in the art room, it’s a winter craft that always brings smiles.
For more Winter Crafts try these:
