Oil Pastel Cardboard Cupcakes

We looked at painter Wayne Thiebaud, an American artist known for his still-lifes of edible treats and everyday objects, before embarking on these oil pastel cardboard cupcakes. This is a very simple art project which uses cereal box cardboard, a pencil, and some oil pastels. Look at all the amazing colors!

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Supplies needed for cardboard cupcakes

~ Cereal box cardboard (easier to cut than regular cardboard)

~ Templates (below)

~ Scissors

~ Pencil

~ Oil pastels

Setting up the table to make cardboard cupcakes

Step 1: Print out the templates. Cut out lots of cupcakes from the cereal box cardboard and scatter them on the table with the oil pastels and pencils.

Templates: Cupcake one // Cupcake two

Step 2: Show the children where to draw the line across for the top of the cupcake liner. And you can even show them how the cupcake liner has folds that look like lines going from the top to bottom (I showed them an actual cupcake liner). Some children were into this, some didn’t want to draw any lines.

Step 3: Let the children color in their cupcakes, encourage them to use all the colors and to cover all the space.

If you have a spray fixer, use this when the children have gone (and go outside to use the fixer). The fixer is great because then the oil pastels don’t smudge.

I love the way all of these cupcakes look together. I wish I could have kept them (but then again, I feel that way about everything these kids make)!

xo Bar

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