Halloween Scratch Art :: Spider Webs, Jack-O’-Lanterns & More

We’ve been doing Halloween scratch art on a variety of surfaces, including paper plates (perfect for spider webs!) and even pumpkins.

We like our scratch art and always have.

Before we figured out how easy it was to do it ourselves, we bought ready-made scratch art sheets (and frankly, still do, especially the awesome mini scratch art notes by Melissa & Doug). But now we mostly DIY it.

I’ve posted about our scratch art here:

• DIY Scratch Art the Easy Way
• …and here: Fall Leaf Art with the Scratch Art Technique

Here’s a video showing Scratch Art in action! But today I’m going to share our Halloween scratch art…

Halloween Scratch Art on Paper Plates

MATERIALS

• Paper plates (the inexpensive, flimsy kind works well)*
• Oil pastels or crayons, especially in lighter colors or autumn colors
• Black paint (we used BioColor paints but tempera works, too)
• Foam brush
• Toothpicks for scratching (Q-tips work, too, if you want a broader line)

*If you don’t have paper plates on hand, no worries. Just use a sturdy paper or card stock. Index cards work quite well!

INSTRUCTIONS

First, cover the inner circle of your paper plate with an even layer of oil pastels.

(One of the nice things about using paper plates is that you have a built in frame around your artwork!)

Then, use a foam brush to paint an even layer of black paint over the oil pastels.

Until the color layer is covered up.

Next, use a toothpick to scratch your design through the wet paint layer.

(If you get a build up of paint on the end of your toothpick, wipe it off on a cloth or paper towel periodically.)

Continue working until your Halloween scratch art design is complete. Daphne is working on her spider web above.

When you are finished with your artwork, set it aside to dry and start another! The kids made some Halloweeny spider webs, but then they also made flowers, spirals, and abstract designs.

You could try this with cats, witches, spiders, spider webs, haunted houses, owls, ghosts, pumpkins, Jack-o’-lanterns, bats, skeletons, sugar skulls, monsters, or any Halloween theme you can think of!

Have you tried making your own scratch art papers? Give this fun activity a try with Halloween scratch art!

Variation: Another fun way to try this would be to do a layer of dark oil pastels first (black, purple, maroon, gray, etc) then add a layer of orange paint (or another lighter, Halloween-y color) and add your scratch art design.

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