Melted Crayon Art - Duo Post!

[By duo post, I mean that my friend Reena Dulfon did this project, and then I made a version as well, and we both wrote something up for the ol' blog. Reena is in color, and I'm in regular boring black font. I also realize I mention Pinterest a lot. I use it for inspiration when I'm in a crafting slump. If you want to follow my craft board it's: http://pinterest.com/pandercraft/crafty-concepts%5D

Now take it away my crafty compadre!

Hi, I’m Reena and I’m writing a guest blog post for you all today!

I’m sure a lot of you have seen the crayon melting art on Pinterest. I tried it out this weekend and really like how it came out. It’s an interesting piece to display in your bathroom or living room. 

 

For this project you need just a few items:

 

- Crayons. I used one Crayola box of 64, plus one 8-count box of Crayola “Metallic” colors. [FYI yours truly tried to be cheap and bought Roseart crayons for this. DON'T. Just spend the extra $2 for Crayolas, ok? Trust me, it pains me to tell you not to be cheap- but Roseart sucks for basically everything, even if you're only trying to destroy the crayons.]

- A large, thick board. Do NOT use a regular thin posterboard for this project. Use foam board or canvas.

- Glue. I used regular Elmer’s school glue.

- A Hairdryer

- Alphabet stickers (optional)

- Newspaper or towels to protect your area

 

If possible, it would be wise to do this project outside.

 

The first thing you do is glue all your crayons in a line at the top of your board. I removed all the greys, blacks, and browns because I wanted my entire poster to be bright.

 

Glue your crayons first.

Next, you’re ready to melt! Prop your board up against a wall or hold it at an angle. Aim your hair dryer toward the middle or bottom of the crayons, closer to the tips. The highest setting works the fastest but it will splatter the wax everywhere, so you may want to keep it at a medium setting. Once the wax starts melting, move the dryer around as needed to maneuver the wax. Interestingly, blue and purple shades melt the fastest!  Wax dries very fast so you may need to go over certain areas a few times.  

 

Ooooh, rainbows.

 

You’re almost done! I decided to add a motivational word to the bottom of my poster to add a little extra “oomph” to it. I simply used alphabet stickers I purchased from the craft store, but you could also use stencils and paint!

 

And it’s done! I can’t wait to frame it and put it on display.

 

If you want to add a word make sure you leave some room at the bottom.

So Reena inspired me and I decided to do one too- but I wanted to incorporate another trend I’ve seen around: chevron stripes. I’m really liking them.

I made mine on canvas I had in the closet that has moved to 3 different apartments with me – see, my “but what if I NEED it someday?” rationale for not getting rid of things I’ve never used is intermittently reinforced every 2-3 years when I in fact suddenly use something I’ve had for a long time. Hence, I will probably never be able to extinguish my craft supply accumulating habits.

Additionally, you will need some painter’s tape for this.

Tape your chevron design (or other pattern?) first.

I bought Roseart and this may be the only time I’ve regretted saving $2. I had this 64 pack of Crayola on hand and since I got rid of all my coloring books last time we moved (hah, you think I’m kidding but I’m not) I decided I would just use them.

I originally planned to glue them to the top like Reena’s, but then I had an idea. What if I melted them in a candle and did dots instead? Then, I could make a gradient of just one or two colors. I wanted to do orange and blue.

Pumpkin candle, helping me out.

Off to a great start. The gradient thing is even working like I hoped!

When I got to the halfway point I realized I should perhaps have started with dark blue because fading to light and then to light orange, but since I didn’t think that far ahead, I was left with dark orange –> dark blue.

It did not end well. Not a fan.

That yellow on the end is where I tried to salvage it. All the blues were just too dark and didn’t work nearly as well as the oranges. I was sad.

Then I realized that you can pick off the dots pretty easy…so I decided a do-over was in order.

I’ll probably never get the blue crayon out of my fingernails.

I left the yellow because I felt like it went with the rest of it alright.

I decided to just stick with orange and repeat the gradient pattern up to yellow.

When I had finished re-doing the right side, I grabbed some grocery bags and covered my bathroom sink with them.

Let the melting begin!!

Melting…

Melted!

Am I the only one who noticed that the hairdryer doesn’t just blow hot air nice and linear like? It was sort of swirling things around in a weird pattern. No one warns you of this. Consider yourself warned!

Peel your tape off.

At first I was a little disappointed that some of the wax leaked underneath the tape. But as I peeled more of it off, I could see the chevron design was still pretty clear.

My new masterpiece.

I’m diggin it. If I had another piece of canvas I might even do a coordinating one in different colors.

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