Melted Crayon Art

   A week or so ago, I decided I wanted to try out some melted crayon art. I don't own a hair dryer to do the one that drips down so I was trying to find a different way. I found a post on Pinterest about shredding a crayon and using an iron to melt it. I didn't really like the way it turned out. I looked into it more and found out they were ironing it like you would clothes, but if you held the iron still, it wouldn't make it a big mess of mixed crayon. I decided to give it a try. I had read that they used a cheese grater to shred the crayon. All I accomplished by trying it that way was coloring on my cheese grater. I grabbed a sharp knife and carefully got to work.

This is about two crayons each. You may need a couple boxes depending on what you are making.

   I grabbed a piece of card stock, hoping it would hold up better than regular paper.

   I decided I wanted to try out a Batman logo. I printed one off of the internet and carefully cut it out.

   I figured it would be easiest to start on the inside and work your way out. I placed the cut out logo on the paper.

   Carefully fill it in. One nice thing about doing it this way is you can gently push the crayon that landed on the template into the middle to help keep it nice and clean.

   Carefully lift the paper and touch up the outline.

   Next, I used the piece I had cut out to cover the black crayon to help keep the yellow from mixing in. I just shaped this on my own. It wasn't too hard since it's an oval.

   I thought it might look cool to add the mixture of the two colors around the outside.

   Very carefully remove the paper from the logo. I did end up getting a couple bits of yellow mixed in with my black. I used a toothpick to very carefully pick out the yellow.

   Tape down some wax paper over the top of your art work. Put your iron on the lowest setting and very carefully melt the crayon.

  

   Here is my finished work. Not bad for a first time, but can still use a little bit of improvement.

   Some tips that might help:

   Make sure your crayon is the same thickness throughout the work. The middle was much thicker than the outside. This made it so it wouldn't melt evenly.

   It doesn't look cool to add a mixture of the two colors around the outside. It would have looked a lot better if that mess around the edge was just yellow. It would actually look pretty cool.

    Hold the iron flat and don't move it around. Don't even put it on the paper. Just hold it above the paper. It gets plenty hot to do it that way.

   When you are letting it cool, place something over it or on the edges of the paper. It will curl and if you try and flatten it back out, the crayon will crack. I had mine curl so I placed it on a cookie sheet out in the sun. It melted back down again pretty quick. This might also be a good way to melt it without an iron. Just make sure you watch it, once it starts melting, it goes fast!

   Other than that, have fun with it! If you are doing it with children, make sure you watch them closely. I recommend not letting them shred the crayon or use the iron unless they are old enough to do it safely. When I was looking at different ways to do this project, I saw one where they let their kids use a pencil sharpener to help get the crayons ready. This might be a good alternative.

   If you give this craft a try, I would love to see what you come up with as well! I'm already trying to decide what I want to do next.

   Happy crafting!