Crayon Art & Crepe Paper Flowers - a tutorial

If you're on Pinterest, there's a really good chance you've seen these melted crayon works of art.

The boys and I made our pictures before I bought the frames.  I would suggest buying the frames first, so you know just how far the crayons need to be from the edges to fit in the frames.  I had to do some serious sanding on my frame, and the boys could have added another crayon to their pictures.

We were so excited to try this, that I forgot to take pictures (again!), but it's really easy.

What you'll need:

Canvas

Crayons (enough to cover 1 edge of your canvas)

Elmer's Glue

Blow Dryer and/or Space Heater

Wax Paper or newspaper

Small jar (I used one of these)

1.  Put your canvas in your frame.  Use painter's tape to mark the edges of the frame on your canvas. 

2.  Take the canvas out of the frame & using more painter's tape, meet the edges of Step 1's tape.

3.  Remove the tape from Step 1.  You now know where you can put your crayons.

4.  Pick out your crayons.  We used 21 crayons for ours.  It was the perfect number for my frame, but we probably could have squeezed in a 22nd crayon for the boys.

5. On your work surface, line up your crayons the way you want them on your canvas.  Then, start applying the glue to your canvas, and add your crayons.

6.  Introduce your kids to some of your favorite big band songs, and dance around with them while waiting for the glue to dry.  It doesn't take long, about 10-15 minutes.

7.  Lay down some newspaper (we used a hand towel with some waxed paper on top), and prop the crayon side of your canvas up on your short jar.  With your space heater and/or blow dryer (make sure you have it on your lowest setting so it doesn't splatter the wax), start melting your crayons.

8.  Once the crayons start melting, you'll want to stand the canvas up more.  We did ours on the floor, so we just propped them up against the wall.

From left to right: Mine (when I did mine, I just had my canvas propped up on the jar, which gave me fatter drips), Awesome's (he picked his colors by how he wanted to see them mix, then wanted it hung horizontally to look like a machine gun!), and Bug's.

Now for the Crepe Paper Flowers

What you need:

Crepe Paper/Streamers

Glue

Scissors

 

 

Oops!  No Picture!

Stick your flower onto the glued area, then cut away the excess.

8 pkgs. 24 crayons - $2 (.40 each @ Walmart - back to school sale)
1 pkg. 8x10 canvas - $3.50 (each pkg. contains 3 canvases @ Walmart)
Elmer's Glue - FREE (I had some on hand, but it's super cheap, anyway)
Yellow Crepe paper/streamers - $1 (pkg. of 2 rolls @ Dollar Tree)
Frames - $17.50 (All found @ Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off. The boys' were unfinished wood that I painted, and were $5 each on sale. My barnwood frame was $7.50 on sale)
Total Cost for 3 pieces of art - $24 or $8 each!

If you make one of these, I'd love to see your creation!  Just email me or join my Flickr group!

Linking up to some of these parties, this one, and this under $20 party!