Whether you’re celebrating Independence Day in the U.S. (July 4th), Canada Day in the north (July 1st) or an important event in your country this summer, fireworks are sure to wow everyone! This wonderful canvas of colors is made with crayon underneath a wash of paint. Use our R54560 Animal Paint Scrapers to create gorgeous firework details!

Age: 4-8

Duration: 20-30 minutes

You’ll Need:

• R54560 Animal Paint Scrapers

• 8½ x 11″ sheet of card paper (color on non-coated side)

• Crayons

• Tempera paint

• Paintbrush

• Paint tray and paint bowl

• Tape

This is your basic crayon wax-resist painting with a bit of a twist! Using the paint scrapers helps children to develop their fine motor skills while they envision a spectacular design. They can experiment with textures and varying thicknesses of lines using the R54560 Animal Paint Scrapers.

Lay down the sheet of card paper with the non-glossy side facing up. This is the side you’ll use to color in with the crayon and paint. I recommend that you tape down the sides of the sheet of card paper so it doesn’t rip or slip away from a student’s grip as he or she colors it in.

Color in sections of the card paper with different colors. Experiment with unique color combinations. It helps to turn the crayon on its side as you color so that students maximize the amount of space they color in and keep their fingers from getting sore after coloring for a while. I used a lot of pastel colors in my crayon coloring, such as pink, orange, lime and yellow. What colors are your fireworks?

Fill a bowl with dark blue tempera paint to represent the night sky. This kind of paint is thick and less likely to be repelled right away by the crayon wax. Spread the paint completely across the card paper using a large bristle brush. Coat the entire paper as best as possible so that none of the crayon shows through. Don’t let the paint dry! You need to use the scrapers on wet paint so proceed onto the next step as quickly as possible.

You’ll need to do the next step while the paint is still wet! I used a variety of different scrapers from the R54560 Animal Paint Scrapers pack–each make a unique effect when you scrape across paint. As you can see in the animation above, the fireworks are made with a simple line depicting the trail of the firework. I then scraped a small circle in the center of the firework. I made radiating lines with the different scrapers and this gave me a varying thickness of lines depending on which scraper I used.

What special holiday are you celebrating this summer? Show us snapshots of your colorful exploding fireworks! Send us photos to be featured in a guest post on our blog. Contact us through the contact form. We’d love to hear from you!