Make some colourful Cosmos Scrape Art! These big, bold, scrape-painted flowers are going to make a lovely addition to your wall flower garden.
This activity is part 3 in our Spring Flower Art series, where we’re combining process art with cut-and-paste into a finished craft.
OK, so scrape art is kind of addictive. There are soooo many ways you can smear paint across a page, and all of them are fun!
Last week we shared spiral scrape painting with craft sticks that became larger-than-life roses. The week before, it was tulips made from a basic straight scrape.
This week we’ve used recycled cardboard scraps and worked the paint into a starburst design. The dried artwork has been turned into cosmos flowers.
The yellow pollen centres were made from DIY recycled bubble-wrap stamps. This is optional. If you don’t want to bother with an extra step you could make a page of regular yellow scrape art and use that for the centres, or use tissue paper screwballs to get a different look.
It’s up to you!
General tips
I suggest printing the templates to card stock because this makes them easier to trace around, although paper will also work.
This project gets messy, but trust me, the mess is worth it. Just ensure you have plenty of newspaper handy to protect your table surface.
Like all of our scrape art flowers, these cosmos are super-easy to make. They’re suitable for ages 6+, but younger kids could make them with some adult help
You can get the full set of scrape art flower templates in a value bundle here.
Are you ready to get started?
How to make Cosmos Scrape Art
You will need:
- Card stock
- Acrylic paint in pink, red, white, orange, yellow and green – you will need either tubes of paint or paint bottles with a nozzle that can squirt
- Recycled cardboard scraps – Approx 6cm wide (2.3”) for scraping and one 8x10cm (3×4”) for stamping
- Bubble wrap scrap large enough to wrap around the 8x10cm piece of cardboard
- Jumbo craft stick or squeegee for the stem scrape art
- Newspaper or similar to protect your table surface
- Good quality art paper in A3 size or similar – One page of starburst scrape art makes one cosmos flower. You can cut multiple pollen circles and stems from each page of green and yellow
- Scissors
- Glue Stick
- The Cosmos Scrape Art template, available from our printables store and TPT store
How to:
Squirt red, pink and white paint directly onto your paper in a starburst from the centre outward.
Place the 6cm scrap of cardboard at the centre of the starburst and scrape in a straight line to the edge of the page. Repeat all the way around the page until all of the paint has been scraped flat.
To create stems and leaves, squirt green with a little bit of white paint in squiggles and lines on a page. Use a craft stick or your cardboard scrap to scrape the paint horizontally across the page.
To create the yellow ‘pollen’ texture, wrap a piece of bubble wrap around a scrap of cardboard and use it to stamp yellow and orange paint. Completely cover the page.
Allow to dry.
Print the cosmos, stem and leaf shapes out. Cut out the shapes.
Place the cosmos shape directly over the centre of your starburst and trace around the edge. Flip the shape over, line it up with the first half and trace around it to get the full flower shape. Cut the shape out.
Place the centre circle over the bubble wrap print. Trace, cut out and glue in the centre of your flower.
Trace the stem onto green scrape art. You can create longer versions of the stem by tracing two stems joined together so they run the full length of the page. Cut out and glue to the back of your flower.
Aren’t they gorgeous? Now hang them on the wall with some blu-tack to decorate for Spring.
I love the effect of turning hap-hazard process art into finished flowers. It gives them a textural, abstract style reminiscent of Eric Carl illustrations.
Also in this series
More Spring Art Projects
- This Positive Negative Flower Art is great for older kids
- Here’s some easy dragonfly squish art
- This Butterfly Squish Art has been based on real species, the Monarch and Blue Morpho
- Bunny and Chick potato stamping is super fun and easy
