Crayon Canvas

This one is not my original idea (are they EVER???), but something that I saw on Pinterest.  I picked up the canvas at Hobby Lobby.  My neighbor girl was wanting to do this project with my daughter (Madi is a freshman in high school) so we decided today was the day.  In addition to my daughter Avery, we also invited 2 other girls to come and join in the fun.  Madi had her hands full!

The first step, and quite possibly most time consuming, is to peel the paper from the crayons.  Now, I did read somewhere online that you could drop the crayons in boiling water and the paper would come right off, but with 3 little girls here we decided they could peel crayons!

Once you have the crayons peeled, it's time to line them up across your canvas.  Madi had the awesome idea of lining them up in a wave pattern.  I love it!  When I saw the original Pinterest pin I really liked it, but didn't like the leftover crayons all lined up across the top...the wave pattern solves that!  Looks VERY cool.

When you know what crayons go where, start hot gluing those babies down.  Madi did this for the little girls.  After that, it's time to take the heat gun to those crayons and let 'er drip....

...word of caution...put newspapers down!  I am SO glad I thought ahead and did this instead of my normal "oh, I'll be careful" attitude that would've landed me in a HUGE mess!

~Katrina's rainbow canvas~

I used an embossing gun.  You can splatter the drips, let them run down the canvas, or even let them pool up a bit...it's your world.  It's your art!  I had each of the 4 girls watch me as I did the heat gunning and they told me when they wanted more of a crayon or whatever.

~note the newspapers~

The 4 canvases turned out really cool.  I think this might've been the first of many craft projects these gals will get together for.  It was fun!

~Close up of Caroline's canvas~

~Madi's canvas~

Avery's canvas, which she cannot wait to hang on her wall, by her bed, so that she can "See it a lot". 

ETA:  After the canvas sat on the dining room table a few days, we noticed that some of the thicker "drips" were breaking off.  We decided to take the heat gun to the canvas again to "thin out" some of the thick drips.  There is now less white space on the canvas, but I do not worry about the "art" popping off.  Avery is still happy with it and now it's time to put it on the wall.

Crayon Valentines

Avery and I decided to do something a little different for her class valentines this year.  We got our inspiration from her Daisy Girl Scout troop.  They had made Christmas ones at their December meeting, so we thought we'd do Valentine's Day ones!

Without further ado...Valentine Crayons....

We used a silicone baking mold that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  Take small pieces of crayons (small pieces are better because they'll melt easier) and fill the cup up about half way.  Bake at 250 - 300 degree oven until crayon bits are completely melted.  Warning...it will look like a watery mess, but trust me...once it cools, magic happens and they're fine.

Pop the crayons out of the silicone mold and repeat!  Repeat and repeat and repeat until you're all sick of messing with crayons!

Dear hubs had the suggestion of punching a heart out, stamping on it, and attaching it to the front of the crayon.  Great idea, dear hubs...so we did it!  Heart punch is Creative Memories.  Stamp is from My Creative Time.  It's all attached with a glue dot.

Avery didn't want to just do pink and red, because you know...sometimes boys don't like pink and red.  So we got crazy!  There are green ones...blue ones....yellow and orange ones.  We mixed colors, we used metallic crayons....we just had fun with it!  Be creative...no two crayons will be alike.

~kinda looks like a plate of cookies, doesn't it~

Hugs for you ~ Hugs for me

 The plan is to place these in a cello bag, add a tag to the top, have Avery write her name on it, and then pass them out as her classroom Valentines.  Hopefully if we get that done before this post goes live I will add a photo of the totally awesome and totally complete project.  :-)  If you're reading this, then that didn't happen before the post went live!

I hope you enjoyed this post.  This was a fun activity that I was able to do with my daughter.  She is 5 and starting to love crafting time with Mom!