Crayon Melt Art

Crayon melting art has been a Pinterest staple for months now.  I feel like I've seen it everywhere.  Heck, we went to a fair this weekend and there were three or four submitted in the art exhibit area.  That being said, the reason I've seen it everywhere is because it's AWESOME!

I knew I wanted to do something cool for my mom's birthday; but, with hospital bills from our recent addition of Squishy, I needed something that wouldn't break the bank.  I decided to peruse Pinterest for cool craft ideas and decided I wanted to do some crayon melting.  I particularly wanted to do the heart shaped crayon melting.  Unfortunately, every picture I clicked on to get a tutorial took me to an "untrusted website".  Finally, I stopped clicking and decided to just wing it.  So, although I really like to link to a source when I get an idea from somewhere, I won't be doing that this time just because I don't really have one other than those few pictures on Pinterest.  I'm sure if I kept clicking on the pictures I would have eventually found a good link; but, I didn't really want to risk my computer.  I'd love to thank whoever came up with the original concept though because it's awesome!

Read my instructions after the cut!

What you'll need:

• a canvas
Darice 18-Inch-by-24-Inch Stretched Canvas, 2-Pack
• 4 or 8 packs of 24 count Crayons Crayons
Crayola Crayons 24 Count - 2 Packs 52-0024-2 5200242, crayon great school
• duct tape
• a hair dryer
• super glue or a hot glue gun
• newspaper
• wrapping paper
• black paint (optional)
• puff paint (optional)

1)  Cut a heart from wrapping paper and duct tape it to your canvas.  My canvas was 20x20 and I just made sure to cut a heart that was the appropriate size.  Make sure your heart isn't too big that you won't have room to put crayons around all of the edges.  You'll also want to leave room for the wax to melt.

2) Fold pieces of duct tape over on themselves so that they become double sided and mount the crayons around the heart.  I chose to do them in a rainbow pattern that repeated 4 times because of my 4 boxes of crayons.  Depending on the size of your canvas and the size of your heart, you might use less crayons.

 3) Layout newspaper and get your hair dryer ready.  Slowly melt the crayons section by section using the heat of your hairdryer.  It took awhile, but I melted on the low air option so that my crayons wouldn't move around much.  Also, I turned the canvas as I went so that the section I was melting always faced down so that the melting wax would flow the right way.  TIP: I'd recommend sticking to crayola crayons only simply because they tend to be fairly pure.  I've heard of other people using off brand crayons and it just doesn't melt the same.

4) Let it dry.  It probably only took 30 minutes or so.

Now at this point you have to make a judgement call.  I felt that the melted crayons looked crummy and so I took them off.  I had planned for this and that's why I had only duct taped my crayons to the canvas in the first place.  If you are okay with the melted crayon look, you should glue them on at the very beginning and you should skip the next step. 

I didn't like how the crayons looked dark and distorted; but, that's a personal preference.

5) Take off the melted crayons and replace them with fresh crayons.  Super glue or hot glue them down.  I recommend going section by section so that you make sure the new crayons line up with where the old ones were.

6) Take off the wrapping paper and you should have a nice clean heart in the middle.  

Optional Step:

1) Paint the bottom of your little one's feet in black paint and make prints on the canvas.  Unless your child is older, I don't recommend trying for hand prints.  I learned that the hard way.  Squishy was rocking the fists of steel.  

2) Use puff paint to write their name and the year.  I blurred out Squishy's given name and that's why the left half of the heart is a wee bit blurry.  

OTHER IDEAS: put pictures in the middle, put prints of all your children or your whole family, or use is to frame your child's artwork.

Overall, the project doesn't take very long.  I can't give a direct time estimate because I was busy with a crying baby every so often.  Also, it took longer for me because one of my dogs decided to eat the crayons off the canvas, super glue and all.  Why? I don't know; but, of course she did it the day we were taking it to my mom.  I probably looked crazy at Rite Aid at 6:30 in the morning just buying a pack of crayons ;)



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