Melted Crayons- attempt #1

If you are on Pinterest you know exactly what I am talking about when it comes to the latest and greatest kiddo project- melted crayons. Gorgeous colors flowing down a canvas to make a one of a kind piece of artwork for the playroom. It was love at first sight when I saw how absolutely simple the project was, but I was skeptical. It seemed to simple to actually work well. And I was right, sort of.

The main points I was reading on the interwebs were you needed to hot glue the crayons on the canvas and to use a hairdryer. Well I was out of hot glue (crazy, I know!) so I used the plain ole' Elmer's white and it worked just fine. The hairdryer on the other hand- messy.

I had a feeling this would not be our final piece of art so I just grabbed a handful of crayons and the canvas I had laying in my craft closet forever and set to work with Maddie. 

Maddie lasted all of 5 minutes with the hairdryer before she bored and left me for her Littlest Pet Shops.

Now the hairdryer problems. Everywhere I read it said to use it on hot but low speed. Umm yeah that might work if I sat there for hours trying to melt crayons. The only was I could get the crayons to start melting was on hot and high. Hot and high unfortunately also leads to a mess. Wax sprayed across the canvas so I tried aiming it down so it would just spray downward.... not so. Hello wax splattered across the room on my floor.

Hmmm what to do, what to do? Ah ha! I have a heat gun laying around the house from my stamping days and it worked wonders! The heat is HOT and concentrated and didn't blow wax all over the place. Fantastic!

So this is our finished product for now. Not perfect but not horrible. Once Maddie heads to school next week I see a trip to the craft store in my future. New smaller canvases, more crayons, lots of color. I think we are definitely making at least one more for her teacher this year too!