Projects with Kids

Make Brightly Colored Shamrock Art with Chalk Pastels

By

I love all of the bright fresh colors of spring and this shamrock art is just the thing to put you in a spring mood. The perfect St. Patrick’s Day art project that is easy enough for even younger kids to do without much assistance. This is also a great project to talk about positive and negative space!

Chalk pastels are so fun for kids to explore, and with some simple techniques, you can get some pretty cool results. I love how this smudging method looks, especially on black paper which makes the pastels extra bright, they almost look like they are glowing!

Take a look at my collection of chalk pastel art for more creative ideas kids will love.

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

For this project, I created a shamrock template to make this craft even easier for you. This template is available to my email subscribers as part of my free printable resource library. Sign up to my email list below to gain instant access.

After confirming your email subscription you will receive a welcome email with all of the sign-in details. Scroll down to the bottom to sign up.

Create your own shamrock art with chalk pastels

This post contains affiliate links, which come at no cost to you. If you would like more information please review my privacy & disclosure policy.

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

Supplies


Instructions

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

1. First, print out your shamrock template (scroll down to get your template). I found that using cardstock makes the template easier for kids to use. Cut out the shamrock, younger kids will need help with this step.

2. Get your black pastel paper or construction paper and chalk pastels ready. We used pastel paper for this project (cut to 8.5 x 11 inches), but construction paper would also work since it has a bit of a texture to it.

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

Related: Easy Rainbow Shamrock Craft with Oil Pastels 

My daughter planned out her colors first to make sure she had enough to go around the shamrock. She did a rainbow shamrock and I did one using different shades of green and yellow. Both look great! 

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

Related: Canada Day Chalk Pastel Art Project for Kids   

3. Place your shamrock in the middle of your black paper and using one color at a time, color around the edge of the shamrock. You want each color to be quite thick like in the photo above, this will make the next step a lot easier and give more of a dramatic effect to the finished project.   

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

4. Once you are done tracing, using a pastel smudge tool, a q-tip or your fingers (my favorite method!) smudge the pastels outward away from your shamrock. Remind kids to go slow and smudge right to the edges of their paper.  

Lift the template off to reveal your gorgeous shamrock art!

You can choose to spray the artwork with a workable fixative to preserve and keep the pastels from smudging (this is completely optional). This step should only be done by an adult, outside in a well-ventilated area.

Related: 4th of July Chalk Pastel Art for Kids   

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included.

This was such a fun St. Patrick’s Day project. I love that you only need a couple of simple supplies to create this shamrock art. The black paper really makes the chalk pastels extra bright and gives more of a dramatic effect. 

Click here to sign up for my email list and download your printable     

More pastel projects you will love   

Dazzling Shooting Star Paintings with Chalk Pastels   

Use easy chalk pastel techniques to create shooting star paintings that are out of this world! Free star templates included.

Create Stunning Chalk Pastel Sunsets with Kids   

Create stunning chalk pastel sunsets with kids using simple techniques that are fun and easy to do. Kids will love learning and exploring with chalk pastels!

Follow me on Pinterest for more amazing project ideas. 

Pin this project for later 

This shamrock art is beautiful and so fun for kids to make! Kids will love using this easy chalk pastel technique to create a brightly colored St. Patrick's Day craft. Free shamrock template included. #shamrockcraft #stpatricksdaycraft #rainbowcrafts #chalkpastels #projectswithkids  

More projects you will love

Chalk pastel art projects
Palm tree painting on sand with water.
Braided friendship bracelets with letter beads
Red, white and blue stars 4th of July pastel art

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. I subscribed to your nesletter confirmed through my email and was not able to view the free prints. Says to enter a password. I never got one

  4. Great idea, except for the fact that this is not a shamrock! A shamrock has 3 sections not 4. This is a four leaf clover, which has nothing to do with St. Patrick.

    • Hi Gill,

      Yes, I have since learned the difference between a four leaf clover and a shamrock. 🙂

  9. I signed up so I could get the shamrock printable and followed the directions to go to the library and couldn’t get the shamrock. Can you please send it to me?

  11. Hello – I am having the same problem as everyone else. I have signed up but am unable to access the Free Printable.

  12. Love this!! I am having the same problem as others. I subscribed for the newsletter, but never got access to the free printable.

  17. hello, this is an amazing idea! i love it! can you also send me the printable copy of the clover?

  21. I am having trouble getting the printable shamrock. Is there a way you could e-mail this to me, like you did to some of the others?

  23. Could you use regular chalk for this project? I am doing an at project with 30 kids and thought this would be perfect, but I don’t want to have to buy that many sets of pastels.

    • Hi Hilary,
      It’s certainly worth a try! I would do a sample first to see how it looks. Depending on the type of chalk you use it might not be as bright or it might not smudge as much.

  24. Hi,
    I am unable to access the printable as well. I am subscribed to the email list. Thanks in advance for your help.

  25. Hallo,
    Ik krijg ook geen toegang tot de afdruk. Ik ben geabonneerd op de e-maillijst. Alvast bedankt voor uw hulp.

Trackbacks