Crayon Transfer Doodle Art Project

Crayon Transfers – Fun End-of-Year Activity

Are you looking for a one-day, quick and easy end of year art activity? This crayon transfer activity is perfect for those odd days where you have one class period before a long break or you need something creative to do with a small group of kids.

Here is a video tutorial for you! If you are reading this from an email or blog reader, you may need to pop on over to the actual blog post to watch it.

🖍️ What is a Crayon Transfer?

A crayon transfer involves coloring a piece of paper with crayon, placing another sheet on top, and drawing over it to “transfer” the color. The result is a colorful mirror image that is great for expressive line drawings and experimentation.

🌈 Materials for a Crayon Transfer Drawing

The materials needed for a crayon transfer drawing are ones you probably already have! If not, they are very cheap to get. (Amazon Affiliate links have been used, at no extra cost to you. I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases, which go to pay for the maintenance costs of this free blog to help other art teachers.)

• Crayons- any kind, but I use Crayola brand
• White copy paper (any thin white paper, like the kind for a copy machine)
• Ballpoint Pen (this brand is my favorite pen-it’s so smooth!)

✏️ Steps to Make Your Crayon Transfer

1. Color One Sheet Completely

Give each student a piece of paper and have them heavily color one side with crayon. Bright, bold colors work best. They can create a rainbow pattern, blocks of color, or just cover the page in one color. The key is to press firmly and fill the page with thick crayon layers. I tell them to “use your muscles” to color as hard as you can without breaking the crayon. You want the layer to be solid and filled in.

2. Sandwich the Papers

Place a clean white sheet of paper on top of the crayon-covered one.

You could lightly tape the corners to keep the pages from shifting while drawing, but this isn’t necessary.

3. Draw a Design

Using a ballpoint pen, have students draw a design on the top (blank) sheet. Press firmly as they draw—this pressure will transfer the crayon color from the bottom sheet to the underside of the top sheet.

The crayon transfer will be a mirror image of your drawing. If you are writing a word, you will need to write the letters backwards and the word itself backwards, like the word “LOVE” written below.

4. Reveal the Art

Once the drawing is complete, peel the papers apart and reveal the crayon transfer underneath. Kids love lifting the paper afterward and seeing their secret, colorful lines appear like magic!

Isn’t this super fun? The kids enjoyed it.

For this activity, I used two FREE doodle idea sheets I found online:

1. Printable Doodle Page from Artsy Fartsy Life (also a fun site if you are into junk journaling/scrapbooking)
2. Simple Drawing Idea Sheet from Artsy Blevs – The sheets from both of these sites were great for sparking ideas in my students.

Are you looking for some more fun end-of-the-year art activities?

I just finished this new Squiggle Story pack – it is 50% off for this first week! With this activity, students will turn a squiggle into something else- a monster, a magical landscape or something silly! After drawing their picture, they write a small story about their squiggle. You will receive 50 Squiggle Prompts– in both regular lined paper and primary lined paper options. There are also full-page framed squiggle prompts if you’d like to focus more on the artwork and write a story on a separate page. This is great for an early finisher activity or sub plans. And like I said before, it’s 50% off- only $2 for this pack (for the first week.)

Another fun end-of-year activity is a collaborative art piece. You could make motivational banners (like this “Create” one or these positive words) to hang in the school at the beginning of next year. Just write out the words or phrases in large block letters using paint, ink daubers or Kwik Stix. Have the kids use crayons or Kwik Stix to color in!

Or, you could try a Growth Mindset collaborative coloring poster!

What are you doing at the end of the school year with your classes? Share in the comments!