Thursday, January 5, 2012

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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13 comments:

Jen Crum said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

I love the final result

The Teachers Wife said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

Ooooh I LOVE it!! I've seen that (and repinned it myself!) but still haven't gotten around to doing it ourselves. LOVE LOVE!

Kelly said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

That is so awesome!

MiaB said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

this is awesome!!! I LOVE all the colors :) Such a creative project. Would like to invite you to share it here -

http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com/2012/01/sharing-saturday-am-thrilled-to-be.html

thanks
~MiaB

teresa said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

this is so much fun!!! We just made melted crayons in molds for new crayons and it was such fun. A great way to re-cycle.
We'll have to do some crayon art now.
THis is a great post.

Carrie said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

You did a beautiful job!! I may dive in and give it a try, but so far I have stuck to just recycling them into fun shapes. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

@Carrie I highly recommend trying this one out. I found it to be easier than recycling crayons into melted shapes. You don't have to peel or break the crayons! Just hot glue them on (or you could probably even use white glue and let it dry overnight) then hit them with the dryer for a few minutes.
Thanks for stopping by!

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips[Reply to comment]Best Blogger Templates

@teresa This was a great project. I think that we're going to try this again, but in a more preschooler-friendly way. I am planning on having Little Guy pick out broken crayons that still have paper on them, then gluing them down wherever he wants with white glue. After it dries overnight, I'll let him be in charge of hair dryer and see what happens!

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