Easter is quickly approaching. This craft is a simple reminder of what easter really means amongst all the egg hunting, bunnies and easter baskets. For this project you will need white card stock, blue painters tape, oil pastels and water colors. I saw something similar on anther site a while back, but I can’t seem to find it again so I can link to it. Bummer!
Cut a cross shape out of any regular weight paper from your recycling bin. It will be discarded so it does not have to be pretty.
Place the cross on a scrap piece of paper and have the kids color the edges with oil pastels. A thick line works the best. I also encouraged my kiddos to use a variety of colors on each side.
Gently stick the cross to the card stock with a piece of painters tape. Using one finger rub the oil pastel off the cross onto the white card stock creating colorful rays. The smaller fingers in our preschool co-op had a bit of trouble with this step, but with encouragement and assistance they did a great job! Remove the cross to reveal a beautiful outline. So pretty!
The hill with grass was done with the same technique only using green shades of oil pastels. Tape the hill down first they the cross to create depth.
Apply a light wash of watercolor to the sky and hill. The oil pastels will resist the watercolor creating a beautiful finished piece. I love it!
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Wow! That looks fabulous! What a great technique! So effective and perfect for the Easter cross!
Thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
Beautiful! We’ll have to try this next!
That is just beautiful and I know my grandkids would love to do that. Thanks.
I love this process. It’s so great for all ages. I used to use it when I taught middle school art! But I haven’t even tried it with my kiddos yet. Thanks for the reminder!
Great craft! I haven’t seen this technique before! Bookmarking this to do!!
This is a really neat idea!!! when I first saw this crafty item, I thought it was a tshirt. so you think this would work on a tshirt with the right kind of paint?
this is so pretty, great job.
I absolutely LOVE this… Going to take it to the church kid’s bible school. Right now with it being Christmas… I think it would be AMAZING as well in green & red ??? Maybe with Christmas Trees in the background and A BIG STAR in the sky… Just a thought.
Incredible!! BEAUTIFUL!
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Love this! I’m going to try it with finger paints!
Did you try the colored cross with finger paint and did it work?
Thanks,
Denise
I was thinking of trying it with markers and then using a wet finger to smear out the marker.
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Beautiful. I am sharing this idea in my blog with your link…
Do you think 4 and 5 year old could do this project? I teach Sunday School and I LOVE this idea, but want to make sure my students are able to do this.
Love this idea! I might make one on canvas to hang in my living room. What a pretty way to celebrate Christ’s resurrection!
I love this idea….except our oil pastels won’t smudge at all?? Maybe we need to try a different type of pastels (we’re using the type that looks very similar to a crayon but is not pointed) or do we need to add a little water to make it smear??
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I went out and got all the supplies and am going to do this with my class at church tomorrow. My water colors didn’t turn out as well. Yours looks very professional. Any tips on the watercolor part?
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I tried this with colored chalk with sparkles and it gave the same effect. Instead of using their fingers to spread the chalk I would have the kids use a hard thistle brush because their fingerprints got everywhere with the chalk.
Hi this is beautiful idea. Am going to use it with the kids to talk about Joseph with his technicolor coat forgiving his brothers and link in with Jesus forgiveness and love for us. Thank you.xx
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