Craft of the Week: Crayon Art

Fred and I have been short on money, lately. We live paycheck to paycheck, just barely making all of our bill payments on time. Normally, for people's birthdays, we buy things we think they'd like, but not things they could really cherish. We're trying to simplify things in our life in some ways; trying to return to the ways of those before us- before the age of technology, before everyone was so money hungry, and stuff hungry. One of those ways to return is we're trying to make things for people, instead of buy things.

So, for my sister, Elizabeth's, 16th birthday, we decided to make her things that she could hold on to and cherish; things that whenever she looks at them, she'll be able to think to herself, "My big sister (and little sister and brother-in-law) made that just for me." I had Bekah help me so that it would be from both of us. And Fred helped me finish it up. I'd seen things similar to this on Pinterest and decided to give it a go. It was really simple.

All you need is:

1. a bunch of crayons (you can even use old crayons, if you'd like.) I just bought a box of 64.


2. a canvas (I bet cardboard would even work for this, though.)
3. hot glue gun
4. hair dryer
5. buttons (optional)
6. flower embellishments (optional)

First, you hot glue gun the crayons to the canvas.

 

Like so.

Next, its best to do this part in a box because of all the splatter, put the canvas with the crayons pointing down into a box. Turn the hair dryer on hot and let it blow on the crayons. 

 The crayons will melt and the wax will run down the canvas. Let them go until you're happy with it. I let them melt for about 10 minutes.

When you're finished, you can either leave it like that or get creative with it. We bought some flower embellishments and buttons at A.C. Moore and hot glued them on. Let it dry completely over night.

Like I said, super easy. :-)

Do you think she liked it?

Give it a try. It would even be easy enough for young children to do and would be cool for them to hang in their room.

Happy birthday, Liz. <3