Attempting the Melting Crayon Picture from Pinterest

Melting Crayon Picture via Pinterest

Well I am glad that I didn't proclaim that blogging more was my new year's resolution, because I have been severely slacking, sorry readers! I have become beyond addicted to Pinterest. Currently, there is an app for it on the iPad, but it definitely needs to be updated. However, updated app would must likely mean I would procrastinate even more, and I am already behind in school, and it's only the second week (senoritis has kick in).

For those who don't already know, I have a niece, Abigail, that just turned 7 in October. I used Pinterest this holiday for ideas for crafts and recipes. I am not a creative person at all; I swear I was a better artist when I was four years old and was finger painting. My niece on the other hand loves doing crafts, even though she probably isn't a Da Vinci, her excitement for crafts suckers in her Aunt Shaida.

The Pinterest craft we attempted is the popular melting crayons. I am going to include the directions we followed and my "words of wisdom" if you are attempting this craft.

My niece's melting crayon picture. It is a B-2 Bomber because her mom is in the Air Force.

This is my picture. It has the Seattle skyline.

There were several things I learned doing this craft with my niece that I would definitely do differently next time, when I do this craft by myself.

• 7-year olds are annoyingly independently, and giving them a blow-dryer and hot glue gun (both things are needed for this craft) is like giving a monkey a loaded gun. You must listen to them or disaster will ensue, no negotiations. I was literally held at gun-point to the point that my niece got to do her canvas and mine.
• The crayons when they begin to melt, splatter EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING, inanimate and animated objects. It is important to cover your area well. We used the garage for using the hair dryer step. However, we still had some unanticipated splattering. In this case, it was mostly on me, I don't know what I was thinking; I should have covered myself in newspaper, silly me.
• If you are going to glue something on the canvas (i.e. B-2 Bomber, Seattle Skyline), then do it after the crayons have been melted. Or you are going to have cover them with newspaper, and lets be honest, who has the patience for that.
• You cannot have too many crayons. I think we could definitely have used two more boxes of crayons. I found it to be important to have multiple crayons of the same color.
• My niece definitely needed to blow-dry more on the tips of the crayons and controlled the direction of the melting crayons. But as my niece stated, "I know what I am doing."
• Once the crayons start to melt, it runs fast. However, the moment you move the hair dryer away the dripping stops.
• When gluing the crayons onto the canvas, try to get them to top of the canvas so you don't have a white outlined space on the top of the canvas when you remove the crayons (which is optional).
• If you want to take the crayons off the canvas, make sure to use hot glue, because it will peel right off the canvas with no evidence of being there.

I am including the link from pinterest that I followed for this craft. The blogger indicated that it took her 70-80 minutes to finish it. My niece was done with both of the canvases (melting the crayons) in 20 minutes; I have Speedy Gonzales for a niece. Have fun if you attempt this craft and would love to see your end results. My niece was so proud of her finished product that she took it for show-and-tell at school. Melting crayons link that includes step-by-step directions for this craft: http://www.52kitchenadventures.com/2011/09/12/melted-crayon-art-tutorial/

Here are some more pictures of our craft in the making:

Melting the crayons in the garage. It was important to put newspaper above the crayons because my niece was having too much fun with the blow dryer.

My niece and her finished product.

My finished product. I did the Seattle Skyline and then my niece did the rest. The melting crayon is suppose to simulate it raining.