Create some gorgeous stamped wattle art using cotton buds (Q-tips) and sponges cut into a leaf shape.

This is a simple Australian art project for kids which makes a great wall display. It’s also perfect for this time of year – when the Winter wattle trees are flowering. 

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Australia’s national flag is blue, white and red but our national colours (worn by competing sports teams and athletes) have always been green and gold. Why? because that’s the colour of our national flower, Wattle. 

Where we live wattle is coming into flower right now, adding a splash of golden yellow to winter gardens and bushland. Even if you’re one of those poor unfortunates who get all sneezy around them (like my daughter does), you’ve got to admit they smell and look beautiful.

In my ignorance, I’d always thought that late Winter/early Spring was “Wattle season”, but that’s just in our local area of Sydney/Blue Mountains. I’ve since realised that there are over 1000 different species of Wattle across the continent and they also flower in Spring, Summer and Autumn. In fact, somewhere in Australia, Wattle is flowering no matter what time of year it is.

My daughter and I created these Wattle artworks while stuck at home during the lockdown period. It was fun, quick, easy and the prints really brightened up our wall. 

This stamping art activity is simple enough for younger kids to have a go at too (I’d say four and up).

How to make stamped wattle art

You will need

• Cotton buds
• Kitchen sponge
• paper – a piece of coloured paper works well as a background but white will do
• paint in deep yellow and green
• paintbrush

How to

Cut some long, narrow leaf shapes from the kitchen sponge. You only need one per person doing the activity.

Set out your materials including the paint, brush, leaf shapes and cotton buds.

Begin by painting a forked branch, leaving a few gaps in the branch to stamp wattle later.

Take a bunch of cotton buds and dip them in the yellow paint, and paint this into the gaps. Also dot some around the branch.

Dip the leaf shape into green paint and print some leaves around the wattle branch. If you have some backing paper behind your art paper to catch the mess you can print the leaves over the edge of the page. I’ve used baking paper but recycled newspaper will do.

All done! 

We think it worked better on the darker coloured paper than the light paper. If you’re using white paper for the background try mixing a little bit of orange into your yellow to make it more visible on the paper. 

You can also create cards with wattle flower art printed on the front of them. My daughter made one for her Nanna for Mother’s Day.

Wattle art stamping

Print

Easy Wattle art stamping activity for kids

Prep Time 10 minutes

Active Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Difficulty very easy

Materials

• Cotton buds
• Paint in green and golden yellow
• kitchen sponge
• coloured construction paper or card stock

Tools

• paint brush
• scissors

Instructions

1. Cut some long, narrow leaf shapes from the kitchen sponge. You only need one per person doing the activity.
2. Set out your materials including the paint, brush, leaf shapes and cotton buds.
3. Begin by painting a forked branch, leaving a few gaps in the branch to stamp wattle later.
4. Take a bunch of cotton buds and dip them in the yellow paint, and paint this into the gaps. Also dot some around the branch.
5. Dip the leaf shape into green paint and print some leaves around the wattle branch.

Notes

You could use this technique to make cards and gift wrap too

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