1 Color an entire sheet of paper.

Color an entire sheet of heavyweight paper using crayons (do not use washable crayons!). You can do a single color for the entire sheet or make it as colorful as you like. Create stripes, swirls or random shapes and patterns. Do not leave any white space or uncolored areas.

Younger kids may find it hard to color close to the edges of the paper. To make it easier for them, mark the area they need to color by drawing a rectangle at the center of the paper. After they have colored the marked area, cut along the edges of the rectangle.

2 Mix some soap with black paint.

Place some black tempera paint or poster paint in a palette or small bowl. Add a few drops of liquid dishwash soap. The proportion is about a drop of soap for a tablespoon of paint. Mix well.

3 Paint the paper.

Use a foam brush or a large paint brush to apply a thick layer of black paint. Try to make the paint layer as even as you can.

4 Let the paint dry.

After covering the entire picture with black paint, set it aside to dry. You can check on it after a few hours. Mine took about 2 hours to dry.

5 Prepare a scratching tool.

Find a pointed object to use as a scratching tool. Toothpicks, paper clips, a spent ballpoint pen, or a sharpened wooden dowel or chopstick can be used.

6 Start scratching.

Think of a picture that you want to make. Use the tip of your scratching tool to scratch out lines and make patterns or images. As you scratch out lines and shapes, the colorful crayon layer beneath the paint will show through.

Besides making lines, you can scratch out entire sections of black paint to create large colored areas.

Do not blow the bits of dried paint that you scratch off. Instead, let the particles slide off from the paper into a bin.

7 Finish your picture.

Continue until you have completed your picture.