My Version of Melted-Crayon Art {Creating}

My final product!

We've all seen them by now - those canvases with crayons line up at the top and colorful wax dripping below. The first time I saw this was on someone's Pinterest board. I immediately re-pinned. This was just TOO COOL! I had to make one of these... eventually. You see, crayons are special around here, and a brand new box is better than candy to my kids (and me!)

Pink and Green Mama - the first time I saw this genius!

Then, I cleaned out my crafting drawers. Guess what I found: two 24-count boxes of Crayolas, brand spanking new! Since both of the kids have shoe boxes full of crayons, I knew that these were all mine. I set them aside (after smelling them - Is that weird?!) for my project. I knew I'd get around to it... someday.

Last week, I saw my inspiration (and pinned it!) Thrifty With Triplets took the main idea and changed it around:

Thank you for the inspiration, Thrifty with Triplets!

 As you can see from the first photo in this post, I came up with my own version of the melted-crayon art. It took me a long time. I had little guy paint a piece of cardboard blue and white for me, then we glued on the crayons and used our hair dryer to melt them. Then I stalled for nearly a week. I'd set the picture up in different rooms, with different sides as the top. I'd gaze at it while doing dishes. I asked hubby, my oldest, and even little guy what they envisioned. Little Guy came up with the idea: Rain!

I had the main idea, so I needed to focus on how I'd do it. Slowly that plan came together: Clouds on top, flowers on the bottom. I really wanted to marbleize paper for the clouds, with little wisps of bright colors swirling to create the cloud pattern. But it couldn't be done the way I wanted. Plus there was the mess involved and the potential for disaster as Little Guy has decided he won't take any direction whatsoever right now. So, I got out the watercolors. He painted on his easel and I painted a pale rainbow piece of paper to turn into clouds.

Then there were the flowers to think about. Thrifty with Triplets simply used scrapbooking flower stickers. This was a project that I didn't have a penny to spend on, so I needed another idea. We could draw them on, we could make flowers from paper, or something else... The idea struck! I had a box of teeny-tiny star-shaped pasta that had been in the cupboard for nearly a year. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it - we never have a need for pasta that small! Little Guy and I dyed it a rainbow of colors with alcohol and food coloring. *Don't use gel coloring! It doesn't work and you just end up with clumps of coloring floating in a baggie of alcohol. Trust me on this one!*  I simply cut a green box that made its way into our house at Christmastime into thin strips for the grass/leaves of the flowers.

After everyone went to bed, I got to create! Let me tell you, it was so nice to just have peace and quiet to do my thing.First, I glued down the green grass. Then, I lined up the colors of the pasta under the corresponding colors of crayons, then went to work. I'd put glue down at about 2" at a time, slowly adding the flowers, one by one, until I got the look I wanted.

Finally came the clouds. These were tough! I cut the paper into a few cloud-shaped pieces. They all blended together whenever I tried placing them  over the crayons. So, I traced around the edges of each with a pencil. This did the trick. I set them back up on the crayons, moving them around until I liked how they were laying. But there were big spaces where the crayons showed through. I am so glad I'm a crafty hoarder. I saved some cotton from a jewelry box that someone had thrown out (I saved the box, too!) I tore it apart and, with fabric glue, stuck little bits of the fluffy stuff here and there.

All-in-all, it was a pretty involved project. I loved every minute of it, though, and really feel as though I got to use some of the creativity cooped up inside me. As I was making this, I thought of all of the possibilities for melted crayon art. Maybe using a giant piece of cardboard, with crayons along the top, I could tape down blank cards? It would make unique thank you and birthday cards! I could melt crayon down the center of a canvas and create a waterfall scene...

What ideas do you have for melted crayon art? 

I'd love to hear them - 

maybe you'll send me off on another inspirational creative vacation!

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