Easy Penguin Craft

You won't believe how simple this easy penguin craft is to make! Young children will love the fun art process that we have used to make the icy background and you can't beat a bit of potato printing! The art ideas we have used to create the penguin are easy enough for toddlers and preschoolers, but this penguin craft is suitable for older kids too! The great thing about this art activity is that each penguin painting will look totally unique. 

Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

Penguin crafts are perfect for a winter or antarctic-themed project. Why not use this penguin craft as an opportunity to learn a little more about penguins. You could create a mini information book about penguins to go alongside your painting. 

If you are doing an antarctic animal topic we have a set of arctic animal colouring pages to download that you might enjoy. You might also like to take a look at our other penguin crafts, our salt dough footprint penguin, and our fingerprint penguin on a wood slice. 

Penguins always seem to appeal to young children and toy penguins can really enhance sensory play. We had lots of fun playing with penguins in ice and introducing them to our homemade fake snow. A bit more mess, but lots and lots of fun, is including toy penguins in an oobleck small world

As well as having fun making penguins and playing with penguins you could also use our penguin recipe to make some cute penguin snacks. 


Easy Penguin Craft


Penguin craft supplies:


  • White card (A5 size)
  • Blue liquid acrylic or watercolour paint
  • Sponge brush
  • Sea salt
  • Potato
  • Black paint
  • Cotton pads
  • Googly eyes
  • Orange card

Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.


Potato Print Penguin Art


Begin by covering a piece of white card with blue liquid acrylic or watercolour paint. Be nice and generous with the paint, you don't want it to dry too fast. We found that using a sponge brush made this much easier and quicker. 

Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

Once the card is covered in wet blue paint sprinkle sea salt over the card and then leave it to dry. 


Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

As the paint begins to dry you will see some beautiful patterns start to appear on your piece of card.  These patterns are totally random and unique and they create a perfect icy sky for the penguins. 


Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

Once the paint has dried brush the sea salt off the card. 


Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.


Take a potato and cut it in half, this will be used to print the penguin's body. I always like to cut a handle into the potatoes to make them easier for little hands to hold and print with.

Dip the potato into black paint and then onto your icy background. Make sure there is plenty of paint on the potato before you begin and press down hard so that you make a really good potato print.

You might like to leave the penguin's body as it is, just as an oval shape, or you might like to paint on flippers.


Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

While the paint is still wet from the potato print place a white cotton pad onto your penguin shape as a tummy. Above the white tummy add two googly eyes and a small triangle of orange card as a beak. You won't need any glue, they will stick straight onto the paint (as long as you use plenty of paint when doing your potato print). 

Your penguin craft is complete. How easy was that! Take a look at our completed penguin artwork below. Each penguin looks totally unique like he has his own personality.  It would be so fun to make lots of potato print penguins on a larger piece of card to see how different they all look.  

Doing this craft as a class project could be fun as each child's artwork would look different. 

Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.


Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

Once you have completed your penguin craft you could turn your painting into a mini fact book about penguins.  Why not write a few penguin facts onto a folded piece of card and then stick your painting to the front. 

Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.

We hope that you enjoy making your easy penguin craft as much as we did. Potato print penguins are so fun to make and they look adorable. 

Here are a few more fun winter art, craft and activities to try.
Easy penguin craft for kids. Potato print penguin art using a fun art process idea for the icy sky that uses liquid watercolour paint and sea salt. A quick and exciting winter or antarctic themed project activity for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids.  Also works well if making a DIY penguin fact book.


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