Cardboard crayon rubbing art is a fantastic art activity for older school-aged children. They can be themed around any topic as a great extension activity in the classroom or be made just for fun at home. Our cardboard crayon rubbing art today has been made from a series of fun processes, with the final process a cool crayon rubbing. Find out below each step so you can make your own!

Cardboard Crayon Rubbing Art

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This art project was done by our then 9-year-old as a school project. Her brief was to design a cardboard crayon rubbing on something to represent New Zealand. The idea is to do a drawing and then simplify each object into a stand-alone piece so that when the image is rubbed over with a crayon the design shows through.

Depending on the age of the child completing this activity the original idea can be simplified, for example, younger children might like to make a night sky scene with lots of stars to rub over while older children may opt to do a larger art piece with much more detail.

Materials Needed

• Thick cardboard box
• Thin cardboard box, such as a breakfast cereal box
• Scissors
• Pen or pencil
• Craft glue or other similar glue
• A plate or math compass
• Crayons
• Paper

Let’s Get Creative

Design

Start by gathering all of the supplies listed under, Materials Needed. Draw a circle onto a piece of paper. Have a think about the type of rubbing that you would like to make. Next sketch out a design. This could be anything at all but keep in mind that it will need to be simplified into separate pieces so it is best to start simper and then work up to a more complicated design.

Take your design and simplify it by drawing it out again on a new piece of paper. Each item needs to be able to be cut out from cardboard. For example, the sun had been drawn with lines for the sun rays so these were re-designed to be thicker. The mountain was removed and the horizon line worked in with the trees. If in doubt make it simpler to begin with as you can add in more items and detail if you decide it is needed.

Construct

Take the thicker cardboard box and draw the circle onto the box and cut it out. This is the base for your rubbing.

Cut out each item from your simplified design. Place each piece onto the thinner cardboard box and trace around them and cut them out. Now place each cut-out cardboard piece onto your circle rubbing base. Make sure you are happy with the placement and then glue it all in place. If there is too much open space then consider adding in some extra detail. Wait until the glue had dried and then start the rubbing.

Rubbing

Take your rubbing design and place a new piece of paper on top of it. Gently rub over the rubbing design with a crayon. It can be fun to use a variety of different colored crayons to give a cool colorful effect. Do some colors show your design better than others? Try doing another rubbing in different colors and see which one comes out better.

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Thank you for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed this Cardboard Crayon Rubbing Art activity today!