Sunday, June 2, 2013

Melted Crayon Art

Backstory:
So, I've been fascinated with the whole idea of melting crayons onto canvas to make designs, etc. I finally found the perfect excuse to! My mom just finished the basement portion of the addition to  her house, and my 14-year-old brother has adopted it as his "man cave." He has a couch and a TV and X-Box, but his wall decor is seriously lacking. He's adorably excited about finding cool things to put on the walls, so I thought I could make him something! That's where the crayons come in.

Original Pinterest Inspiration:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=g1ns5kn6i7o1pt4selal6v4ut1&topic=396529.0#axzz2UdLH9csR

Materials:
Stretched Canvas or Canvas Panels
Crayola Crayons (from what I've read, they have the lowest melting point)
Hot Glue Gun

I got everything at WalMart for about $15.

Warning:
Melted crayon wax is EXTREMELY hot, as are hot glue guns. Please be careful! :)

Procedure:
  1. Print out the image of whatever it is you would like to illustrate in crayon. If you're a better freehand artist than I am, feel free to draw the image directly onto the canvas panel and then skip to step 5.
  2. Turn the image over and draw in pencil over the entire back of the image.
  3. Place the paper onto your canvas panel so that the pencil is in contact with the panel. Make sure the image is where you want it on the canvas, then go over every line of the image in pen, applying firm pressure the entire time. (The picture didn't do a good job illustrating that. Sorry.)
  4. The pencil should have transferred onto the canvas, giving you outlines of the image.
  5. Pick a color to start with and peel the wrapper off of the crayon of that color. I chose black, because that would allow me to best see the general shape of the image.
  6. The original post that I saw suggested putting the crayons inside the hot glue gun, so I started the project that way. However, I got the crayons stuck in my hot glue gun, and the hot wax had a tendency to drip on my fingers. (OUCH!) So when I started the next color, I let the gun heat up, then simply held the crayon over the part that was supposed to be that color, and touched the glue gun's metal tip to the end of the crayon. It then drips onto the canvas and can be spread around with the tip of the gun. If you need to color a thin portion of the image, allow the crayon to drip over the outer part of the canvas, then use the small bit left on the gun to color the thin parts of the image.
    That wax splatter was completely accidental and actually the result of mindlessly tilting the glue gun and frying my finger. Please don't try to make one of your own. It hurts.
  7. Continue step 6 with every color of the image.
  8. Go back with the black and darken any lines that were covered up by other colors of wax.
  9. Frame or hang and enjoy!

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