This project was fun. Awesome, super fun. Almost therapeutic because of the simplicity of it all, and all the colors are just so crazy and cool.
Alright, so I have seen this crayon art ALL over Pinterest. It is awesome and everyone wants to do it. There are two methods to do doing it that I know of: 1)Hot glue the peeled crayons and use a blow dryer to melt them. 2)Run crayons through your hot glue gun.
My friend Brittnee and I decide to tackle this project together, in a two-part adventure. This is part-one. We opted to try the hot glue gun method first because we figured it would give us more control over the colors and where we place them. Plus, at the end we wouldn't have crayon chunks hot glued onto our canvases.
Well, it didn't go as smoothly as we thought and I definitely have some suggestions for you if you are going to try the hot glue method. First of all, use a new glue gun (or a glue gun with no glue in it) that you are using ONLY for crayons, because this WILL get messy and you will probably never be able to use your glue gun for regular gluing again (unless you really, really clean it well). I bought a new hot glue gun the day after I did this project. I will probably be able to salvage my other one, but I use mine for LOTS of stuff, and I need nice, clean one for all the other projects I do. Second, you really have to test out the waters to see what heat setting you want to use and how your glue gun will be most effective when it comes to pushing these crayons through.
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| Wax melting out the side means burnt fingers :( |
Our biggest problem was that my glue gun wouldn't "grab" onto the crayons to push them through, so we had to push them through with another crayon. Then the wax ended up melting out the side AND through the glue gun hole, so it was a little...leaky. This got messy and frustrating. Perhaps if you use a glue gun that uses the small glue sticks this problem would be solved. If you are buying a cheap little glue gun specifically for this project (which is not a bad idea at all) then I would recommend you try that kind.
Okay, now that I have told you all the ways that ours was difficult let me show you how awesome, and INCREDIBLY FUN this project was. Seriously. Most fun I have had doing a craft in a while. Of course, it could be because I had company this time!
You will need:
- Crayons. Lots of crayons
- Hot glue gun (that you are willing to part ways with)
- Canvas(es)
- Heavy drop cloth you don't mind getting melted wax on
- Patience
We had two 7x14" canvases. The first canvas we used as an experiment canvas. We tested the different ways the wax melted and got used to "waxing." Of course, you could use a heavy piece of cardstock or cardboard to practice on, but our canvas came in a two-pack, so we figured, why not?
By laying the canvas flat and holding the gun perpendicular we were able to achieve a very cool splatter look. It was fun and stress relieving to just have at it. Then of course, we messed up our awesome painting by experimenting with the dripping effect, which is what we all see and love all over the internet (especially Pinterest).
While holding the canvas at various angles (we laid the end of the canvas on top of our upright crayon box) and pushing the crayon wax out at the top end of the canvas, we got that sought-after drip look. Hooray!
Now that we knew our way around this project, it was time to start the second canvas. Our goal was to create a tree - a weeping willow to be exact.
First, we used a light blue crayon to quickly mark of which areas we wanted to be background, tree trunk, and branches. We used several shades of blue in the splatter technique to create the background, a sky actually. While that wax was still hot we used a blue crayon and spread it out and mixed it up. Ended up pretty neat I think.
Next we began the tree trunk. Using about 8 crayons in various shades of brown we ran the crayon through the gun, moving it from side to side of the designated trunk space. When we had finished with all of the crayons, I used the hot tip of the hot glue gun to "carve" a heart in my tree trunk. Using the tip of the gun to remelt the wax is a great trick. If you have a big clump somewhere and you want to break it up, that's a great way to go about it.
Next, we flipped the canvas over so that the other end of the canvas was now propped up. We began dripping the greens out next so that the wax dripped towards the tree trunk. It took me about 2 crayons of green to flush all the brown out and then on top of that I used about 4 more. In other words, every single green and brown crayon went into this piece, and several of the blues too. Of course, we could have chosen to do reds & oranges and made the tree an autumn tree. (Hmm. Maybe I'll do that for my next one!) I tried to fill in as much of the white space as possible, but wasn't able to.
All in all, we were very pleased with how this crayon art (or "waxing") turned out. Though I burned my finger on hot wax, I think it was well worth it!
If you do attempt this, please be careful not to burn yourself and make sure you have something to protect the surface you are working on. Wax does come up, but this wax is HOT and could do heat damage.
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