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.
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.
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This is one of my favorite chalk pastel techniques to do with kids! Check out our bunny art project with chalk pastels for another fun spring idea!
Tips for working with chalk pastels
Chalk pastels can be messy (but so fun!). There are a few things you can do to help keep some of the mess contained:
- Put newspaper down on desks or tables
- Put your project on a tray or a shallow cardboard box which will keep most of the mess inside the tray
- You can try doing your project outside
- Have lots of paper towels handy
- Once you are done with your project (or even halfway through if it gets really dusty), take it outside to gently blow or shake off the excess dust
- If you are using chalk pastels in the classroom and the kids are ready to take their artwork home, simply place the art between some newspaper to keep it from smudging and for easy transport.
Create your own shamrock art with chalk pastels
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Supplies
- Shamrock printable (scroll to the bottom)
- White cardstock
- Black pastel paper, black drawing paper or you can even try black construction paper
- Chalk pastels
- Q-tips or pastel blending stick (optional)
- Spray fixative (optional)
- Paper towels
Instructions for your St. Patrick’s Day art
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, but construction paper would also work since it has a bit of a texture to it.
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!
Related: Easy Rainbow Shamrock Craft with Oil Pastels
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.
Related: Canada Day Chalk Pastel Art Project for Kids
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.
Have lots of paper towels on hand for kids to wipe their hands in between colors.
Smudging pastels are always a fun technique for kids to explore, take a look at these 5 essential chalk pastel techniques for beginners for more fun ideas!
Carefully, lift off the template to reveal your design! Blow off the excess pastel dust outside and use a q-tip or eraser to clean up any smudges on the inside of your shamrock.
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 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.
We love creating and exploring with different art supplies and techniques. If you are looking for more art projects to try, take a look at our ultimate collection of amazing art projects for kids!
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More pastel projects kids will love
Dazzling Shooting Star Paintings with Chalk Pastels
Create Stunning Chalk Pastel Sunsets with Kids
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Pin this project for later
Make Brightly Colored Shamrock Art with Chalk Pastels
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.
Materials
- Shamrock printable (scroll to the bottom)
- White cardstock
- Black pastel paper, black drawing paper or you can even try black construction paper
- Chalk pastels
- Q-tips or pastel blending stick (optional)
- Paper towels
Tools
- Spray fixative (optional)
Instructions
- Print your shamrock template onto white cardstock and cut it out.
- Use painter's tape to tape it down in the middle of your paper. You can use black pastel paper, drawing paper or even try construction paper.
- Have kids choose the pastels colors that they want to use. They can choose to do a rainbow theme, different shades of green or any color combination that they like.
- Draw thick lines around your template with the chalk pastels.
- Use your fingers, a blending stick or q-tip to smudge the pastels in an outward direction all the way around your template.
Have lots of paper towels on hand for kids to wipe their hands in between colors. - Carefully, lift off the template to reveal your design! Blow off the excess pastel dust outside and use a q-tip or eraser to clean up any smudges on the inside of your shamrock.
I love this art
Thank you Debbie!
Is a m looking forward to the art projects!!!
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
Hi Izabela,
I just send you an email with all of the printable details. 🙂
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. 🙂
Look and thanks for all the ideas for my grsndchildren
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.