This ink blot shamrock craft is a great last-minute craft for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s easy enough for preschoolers to make, but older kids love this classic art technique too.
Today, doing a fun and easy art activity for St. Patrick’s Day using the classic “ink blot” technique. This painting technique is also known as symmetry painting or butterfly painting because it’s often used to make butterflies like these.
It’s a simple technique that you may remember doing when you were in school. Young children love this technique because it’s easy and fascinating, but older children enjoy it too. My gang ranges in ages from 4-10, and they all loved making these shamrocks today.
You might wonder why we’re painting our shamrocks in rainbow colours when shamrocks are supposed to be green.
Well, rainbows and St. Patrick’s Day go hand in hand, and painting rainbow shamrocks is much more vibrant and exciting than painting plain greenshamrocks. We love a good ol’ pop of colour when we’re crafting.
Let’s get right to it, shall we?
Ink Blot Shamrock Supplies:
- paper (we used printer paper)
- paint (colours of the rainbow)
You’ll also need a pencil and a pair of scissors to make your shamrock.
How-To:
Start by drawing a shamrock on a piece of paper.
Cut out your shamrock and gather your paints.
Fold your shamrock in half and press a sharp crease.
Drizzle your paint colours on one side of the crease. Alternatively, your kids can use a paint brush to add generous amounts of paint to the paper with a brush. Note the word generous. You need a good amount of paint on the paper. Ink blot painting is all about the “squish”.
Fold your paper in half and run your hand all over it to smooth the paint around inside.
The reveal…
And now, the best part…the reveal.
Peel your shamrock open to see the symmetrical pattern you’ve made.
Isn’t that cool?
Let’s do that again!
Paint, fold, press, open!
Here’s an attempt at some symmetry painting using a large pom pom to apply the paint:
It didn’t work exactly as planned because the paint wasn’t thick enough to make much of a mark on the opposite side of the shamrock. That’s ok because this hooligan had painted the entire shamrock before folding it.
It’s beautiful. I think I see more pom pom painting in our future.
And definitely more ink blot painting!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
