One of the silliest looking creatures in all the ocean is the tiny seahorse.

There’s something intriguing and charming about these little animals that makes children mesmerized!

Today we’re sharing this cute and fun seahorse craft for kids. It combines watercolor and paper crafts to create a colorful ocean scene.

It’s an easy ocean craft for kids that are as young as toddlers (with some modifications) and works all the way up to elementary-aged kids!

Read on below to see how to make this project with your children or students.

Watercolor Seahorse Paper Craft

Supplies

• Colored card stock
• White card stock
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Circle punches (optional)
• Liquid watercolors
• Paint brush
• Glue stick
• Black marker
• Scissors
• Seahorse craft template (download form at the end of the page)

Directions

Download the seahorse template and print out the seahorse body and body parts onto the colored card stock of your choice. Cut out all the pieces.

Begin to assemble the seahorse by gluing the belly onto the front of the seahorse.

Glue the fin to the back of the seahorse.

Secure the googly eye to the seahorse’s head.

Make the watercolor background by mixing the blue, green and little bits of yellow liquid watercolors onto the watercolor paper. Use water to mix the colors together. Let dry completely.

Cover the entire back side of the sea horse in glue and attach to the fully dried watercolor background.

Use the circle punch or scissors to make circles from the white card stock. These will be the bubbles.

Glue your white circles around the rest of the page and use the black marker to draw the bubble’s reflections.

You’re done!

This mixed media seahorse art project is a ton of fun for kids of all ages!

Ways To Simplify This Project

If you’re planning on doing this art project with toddlers and other young children and you want to make it even easier, we have a few suggestions for you.

First, let’s talk about the watercolor background. If the painting aspect feels like it’ll take too much time or get too messy, don’t worry! Instead of painting you can easily swap it out for a piece of blue construction paper. You can still add the bubbles and if you want you can also use a marker to draw on wave lines.

If you’re on a tight timeline you could also completely skip the background and have the craft just be assembling the seahorse pieces together!

Another way to make this project toddler friendly is to have all the seahorse pieces pre cut before the activity. If you only have one or two children, this will be a quick step, but if you’re doing this for a group in a library, daycare or classroom setting you’ll need to plan ahead accordingly. Once all the pieces are cut, all the toddlers will need to do is use a glue stick to glue the pieces together.

If you want, you can also skip the googly eye altogether. The seahorse template has an eye printed on it so you don’t have to even draw one on! We just like the fun, three dimensional aspect of adding googly eyes to this art project.

What The Child Will Learn

Even though art is so much fun, there’s also a ton of learning involved as well!

Did you know that painting in particular helps with a variety of skills necessary for school aged children? It’s true! Painting helps kids work on fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. It also helps children develop another avenue of self expression and teaches them color theory in a completely hands-on way.

That’s not even mentioning how it helps increase creativity and aid in stress reduction.

Share With Us

Did you make this seahorse craft with your children or students? We love seeing your kids’ completed artwork!! Head over to our Facebook page and post a quick picture to our FB wall!

More Art Projects For Kids

• Blow Painting Art With Straws
• Handprint Chicken Art Project
• How To Make Easy Turtle Painted Rocks For Kids
• Recycled Plastic Flower Art

More Ideas For Kids

Free Seahorse Template