Try It Tuesday - DIY Crayon Art Tutorial - Fun!

I have been pretty anxious to try this out for a while now, but haven't had any time to do so. Well, be careful what you wish for, right? We made this on Day 20 of me being cooped up in my house "jail"! :)

But anyway, it was the last day my oldest daughter was going to be home before school started up again, so it worked out well. She was my "big helper" and ended up really being of great use when it came to photo time! :)

These two canvases are going to be in a silent auction we are holding next month for my Aunt Holly who has cancer. Therefore, we chose the sayings that we did in her honor. She is a wonderful free-spirit who is caring and tries to dance in the rain! Aunt Holly, this is for you! <3

So, here is what you need to get started making your own crayon art:

 

-Crayola Crayons (check Amazon for a big pack)

-Black Sharpie Marker

-Scissors

-Hair Dryer

-Contact Paper (Walmart)

-Hot Glue Gun & Sticks (Joann.com)

-Packing tape

-Art Canvas (Joann.com had 50% off!)

-Tablecloth or newspaper

-Cardboard

 

First, you need to decide on a saying or photo, whatever. For this first one, I printed out a silhouette online, cut it out with an Exacto knife and then used it as a stencil to trace the pattern onto the canvas. I used a plain black Sharpie marker and colored in the pattern after I traced it. You will see that I added a bit of hair to the silhouette because I wanted her to be a bit more feminine! :) You can also add a phrase or anything else you would like.

Next, I decided the patterns and colors I wanted to use for the canvas. I chose enough crayons to ALMOST line the entire top of the canvas. It looks full enough. I was worried about splattering off the canvas and I left a bit blank on each side.  I chose to glue the crayons to cardboard because I felt the canvas was too short to fill it up with glued-on crayons.  I wanted just the color on the canvas.  The cardboard I had was pretty sturdy and had a natural crease that I used to my advantage.  I hot glued the crayons in order so that the tips were just past the crease.

Then, I cut along the crease enough to wrap the cardboard around the sides of the canvas and taped the sides to the canvas with packing tape.  This allowed the cardboard to sit right on top of the canvas when I used the hair dryer.

Next, you should prepare the canvas to be colored by covering up any of the stencils or sayings that you don't want crayon on. I chose to cover it with contact paper because I didn't want to mess with painter's tape. But, I did have to tape down the contact paper because sometimes the dryer blew the edges up.  You may want to try the tape if you have it.

OK, so now that you are ready to melt your crayons, you have to prepare for a mess. You need a LARGE cover, I used an old long piece of fabric that I used to have for a tablecloth at Mary Kay parties. It has gotten beat up over the years and now I just use it for projects like this!  I simply draped it over two chairs next to each other. I secured it with chip clips! :)  And just when you think you have enough covered, cover up a little bit more...it splatters! (Maybe you can see the blue crayon on my nails in some of my photos from my practice session!)

Now we are ready to go! I used one hand to blow dry and one hand to secure and maneuver the canvas while I was melting the crayons. You may want to do the same thing. OR, grab a kid that doesn't mind getting messy and one that can follow directions!

You will want to start melting the crayons from just above the black solid line printed near the tips of the crayons.  It takes a bit to get them going, but once they melt, they drip fast!  Turn your dryer to high heat, otherwise it won't melt them. The crayons will splatter, but you will quickly see that depending on where you point the dryer, you can control which way they splatter.

I started at the red end and worked my way to the opposite side of the canvas.  What I noticed was that if I tried to do more than one section at a time, the wax would drip down a bit and dry before I got back to it.  Sometimes, it would create a "lump" of crayon at the end of the drip that the next pass would try to get around. Sometimes the lump would melt and other times the lump would just accumulate more crayon. I personally didn't want huge clumps (even though I got some), so I tried to finish one section before moving to the next.

After your crayons are melted from the top, you can go back and melt the "drips" if you want to. Just beware that they spread a different way than if you just let them drip from the top. It just depends on what you want to happen. Then, let the project dry before removing the tape or contact paper.

You can see that when I removed my paper, there were a few of those "lumps" that kind of looked funny. Also, I wanted the color to "drip" on the umbrella a bit to show that the umbrella was "protecting" the girl who was in the rain. So, I removed the paper and heated just a few areas to get that effect. I wasn't totally successful, but it came out OK. It was my first time, so it was pretty hard to figure out how to control the splatters. But oh well!

 

Now, all you need to do is enjoy your artwork! I just think this is such a clever idea! It takes some time, but it's worth it.  There are a bunch of techniques out there, but I chose the drip effect the best for these projects. Some people have crumbled or chopped bits of crayon and glued them to the canvas to blast them with the heat. Others have actually stuck the crayons in their hot glue gun! I'm not that brave yet! :)

Have you tried any crayon art projects? I would love to see them and hear about them! Please comment below and let me know!

Also, check out my other DIY projects while you are here!

Did you like this post? I'd love it if you shared it on FB and Pinned it for later! :)

Get creative and have fun! God bless! :)