Shamrock Scrape Painting

Looking for some fun process art for St Patrick’s Day? Scrape painting is always a favorite art activity in our house. We love that you can mix colors and get a beautiful piece of art when you’re done. It’s easy for toddlers to do too!

RELATED: St Patrick’s Day Crafts for Kids

Shamrock Scrape Painting for St Patrick’s Day

This art activity only requires a few materials that you might already have on hand. You only need paint, white cardstock and our free printable shamrock template. You can also draw your own shamrocks too!

Pair this activity with our shamrock suncatcher.

Make a green shamrock with two shades of green:

Or make a rainbow version: 

You can also just have kids scrape the paint across into the shape of a rainbow on plain white cardstock:  

Supplies Needed For Shamrock Scrape Painting

• Acrylic Paint
• White Cardstock
• Thick cardboard (for scraping)
• Free Printable Template – you can get the template at the bottom of the post.

Note – to make a large rainbow, we used a 12×12 size of white cardstock. You can still do the same activity on regular-sized paper too!

Watch the Video Tutorial

How to Scrape Paint a Shamrock and Rainbow

1. First, print off the template.

You can get the template at the bottom of the post.

2. To make the rainbow shamrock, first apply paint in the order of the rainbow across the top of the page.

3. Using a long piece of cardboard across the page, apply even pressure on the cardboard and scrape the paint down the page.

Some tips: 

• The bottom of your cardboard needs to be flat so that it will evenly scrape the paint down
• Your cardboard should be thick so that it does not bend when you use it for scraping
• Make sure the paint line goes across the width of the shamrock so you fill the whole space with the paint

Once you’re done scraping, allow the paint to dry. Then you can cut out your shamrock shape.

To make the green shamrock you can do a similar pattern as the rainbow, by alternating two different colors of green.

Or you can add little dollops of paint inside the shamrock with two different colors of green:

Using a smaller piece of cardboard, you can now scrape the paint into different directions to get a scrape painting effect.

To scrape paint a rainbow, add each color of the rainbow with paint on the left side of the paper. Then using a piece of cardboard, scrape the paint into the shape of a rainbow.

Try to keep the cardboard flush to the paper as you scrape across. You may need to try it a few times before you get all of the colors scraping across.

The finished scrape painted rainbow turns out so pretty!

We love how easy this one is for kids to make! They will be delighted with their final results and will want to do it over and over again!

Punch some holes into your shamrocks and you can make a banner to decorate your house or classroom.

Get the Free Printable Shamrock Template

More St Patrick’s Day Ideas

See over 25+ St Patrick’s Day Crafts for Preschoolers.

This shamrock suncatcher looks beautiful in the windows! Kids love to make them too!

This rainbow slime is really fun to make for St Patrick’s Day!