Melted Crayon Art- Love it!

Melted crayon art is all over Pinterest...and I was so anxious to make my own! I couldn't get a great picture of my art, but as I learn to use my camera and get the lighting better, maybe I can get a better pic of it. Okay, so most crayon Art I've seen is just whole crayons on one side of the canvas melted down...pretty cool. I did see just green crayons melted down on one side and someone put flowers on the other side as if the melted green crayon was the stems.  Cool as well,  but I wanted to do something no one else had done yet. I didn't realize I was going to make it like a picture frame until the end. Even though it's a little busy...it's still cute and I'm proud of my melted crayon art!

I'd love to see more original ideas, but to make one exactly like I made, here's what you'd need:

* 16 x 24 canvas
* hot glue gun
* hot glue sticks
* knife and cutting board
* newspaper or an old towel
* hair dryer
* Box of 96 crayola crayons
* white acrylic craft paint (and brush to brush it on with)
* Your favorite 4 x 6 photograph
*(see end note to avoid having to use paint.)

Start by cutting your crayons. I didn't use any of the blacks or grays so you can test cut a few of those till you get the hang of cutting them with the paper in tact. (You don't want the paper to rip and tear down the crayon.) I rolled the crayon under my knife all the way around putting a little pressure on the crayon, when I got all the way around I was able to press harder and cut through evenly.


I didn't worry about cutting at EXACTLY the same spots but used guides to try to cut them pretty consistently.I cut between the registered trademark symbol and the black line near the bottom of the crayon, then I cut just a little over from the letter "c" in the word crayon to create three pieces of the crayon. You're mostly going to use the tips and the bottoms, but there will be some use for the middles.


Separate your crayon pieces into three bowls to make it easy to access the piece you need when you need it. (One bowl for tips, one for middles, and one for ends.) Warm up your hot glue gun and arrange your corners. I put three tips of one color family in each corner. Crayola is great in that the color families have the same color of paper, so you can tell what belongs in which color family.

Put down newspaper and hold your canvas on top of it. Turn your dryer on high heat but on the low setting. It's still gonna blow hot wax everywhere so don't wear your favorite clothes. (put on an apron too). Blow the air downward where the crayon will melt angled toward the middle of the canvas. Wait just a few seconds for each corner to dry before moving on to the next corner. 

Now you're ready to arrange your tips around the rest of the face of the canvas. You can do it however you like. I laid them out in color families before committing to a design and the just glued them willy-nilly (not paying any special attention to spacing but trying to get them somewhat evenly spaced) to the canvas. Make sure your tips are pointing toward the middle of the canvas. Then go back to the hair dryer and melt one side of the canvas at a time, moving the heat slowly across the board. You can melt your crayons a little or a lot. I melted them a lot. One crayon even melted all the way out of the paper! (Cool!) Again, wait a few seconds for the side you've just completed to dry before turning the canvas and melting the crayons on the next side.

 When you've completed all sides, you're going to now match up (the best you can) the bottoms of the crayons and glue them on the outside of the canvas next to the corresponding tip. Just do what you can for the corners, I just spaced them out a little. (See completed photo at the top.)

When you've completed that, arrange some of the middles of the crayons large enough to fit a 4 x 6" photo in the middle and try to glue them evenly in the middle of the canvas. (making it like a photo frame). I painted over some of the splatterd melted crayon in the middle of that frame so it would whiten and brighten it and show the photo better. I used white acrylic craft paint.

Glue your 4 x 6 photo in the middle.

You're done! Note that the little bottom pieces can fall off easily from the sides so you can skip that step if you like. I think it's cute so I deal with it.  Please post a pic if you do this project, I want to see! Or pin it to pinterest and let me know. Have fun!

(A little too late I was thinking you could put down masking tape in the middle space where you're going to place your photo to keep it white. You would of course do this before you melt any crayon. Then once your melted crayon is dry, pull it off and place your middle pieces of crayon to make the frame. If you do that, you'll not have to worry about the paint. I didn't know I was going to do a photo when I started this project so I didn't think of that till later. That will save you a step and supplies.)