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!

King of Tokyo Review

   Who wouldn't want to be the King of Tokyo? Okay, I technically wouldn't want to, but in a game, definitely!

    Here's the inside of the box. Everything fits rather nicely.

 

   The game play and rules are simple. Pick your monster and its matching monster board. There are many fun monsters you can choose from.

   Set the points on your monster board to 0 and life to 10

 

   Place the board between you.

 

   Make a pile of your energy cubes. You use these to buy power up cards.

   These are the cards that you will use your energy cubes on. The amount of cubes is in the top left corner. The description of what it does is on the bottom. The artwork on the cards is pretty amazing! Shuffle these cards and place the first three on the side of the board, face up. Those are the ones you can choose from. Once a player buys a card, take the top card off of the deck and place it where the other one was.

   Some of the cards make it so you can do things such as poison a person. There are tokens for those powers to help you keep track.

   There are six dice. There is a lightning bolt that gives you an energy cube. A heart that heals. The paw is an attack. There are numbers one through three. If you get three of the same number, you get points. Three ones are worth one point. Three twos are worth two points. Three threes are worth three points. After you have your three of the same number, if you roll an additional one, it scores one more point. There are two green dice. There are cards that give you extra dice to roll. Only the person that has that card can use the extra dice.

   Your game is now set up and ready to go!

   The first player rolls all six dice. You can re-roll any of the dice you like. You can re-roll twice. The first person that gets an attack is put into Tokyo City. Place your monster on the Tokyo City circle on the board.

 

Here are the rules:
- You can not heal while in Tokyo City.
- If you are attacked, you take one damage per attack rolled.
- When you are attacked, you can take your damage and decide to leave Tokyo City.
- When you leave Tokyo, whoever attacked you must go into Tokyo City.
- If you are in Tokyo and you roll attacks, you attack every player that is not in Tokyo.
- You get one point when you go into Tokyo City.
- If you are still in Tokyo City when it comes around to your turn again, you get two points.
- If you are playing with five or six people, you use the Tokyo Bay circle as well.
- Tokyo Bay is used the same as Tokyo City.
- Once you get down to four people, you no longer use the Tokyo Bay space.

Keep going until you have a King of Tokyo. You become the King by either getting to 20 points first or when everyone else dies.

I really really enjoy this game. It's a fun family game that only takes about half an hour. Our boys love to play this game. It has a lot of luck and not much strategy. If you are looking for a game for the whole family, this is one I would highly recommend!

Dixit Journey: Family Edition

             Dixit is an unusual, captivating board game that unleashes the imagination.  It is not a high strategy game and luck isn’t really a consideration.  Dixit is a game based on communication, cleverness, and understanding the minds of your opponents.  This 2010 game of the year winner is very easy to learn and can be played by 3 to 6 people, ages 8 and up.  One game only takes about 30 minutes! If you are interested in Dixit style games, you will be glad to know there are many versions: the original, Jinx, Origins, Family Edition—to name a few.  All offer an enjoyable variation.  My husband and I (and the kids) play Dixit Journey: the family edition.  We have also played this version with our adult friends and it works with many age groups. We enjoy this version a great deal, so let’s learn how to play this thought provoking game. 

                When you open the box, you will find a scoreboard, 6 game pieces, and 6 sets of voting tokens. 

 

          Each game piece is a different color; each player will choose one game piece and place it on the starting space of the scoreboard.    

 

                You will also find 84 cards.  Once these are shuffled, deal six cards to each player. The players should not reveal their cards to the other players. The illustrations on these cards are amazing.  Every card is a miniature work of art! You could spend a great deal of time discussing the nuances of each card.

 

              The game also contains voting tokens.  The voting tokens come in 6 colors and are numbered 1-6.  All players take the voting tokens that coordinate with the game piece they chose. For example, if you choose to be red, you have a red game piece and red voting tokens.  Also, if 4 people are playing, those players only need the voting tokens numbered 1-4.  If 5 play, then you would need tokens 1-5.  

 

            By this point, every person has six cards.  The first player becomes the active player.  The active player chooses one card in his/her hand.  Next, he or she thinks up a clue that matches the card.  A clue can be just a word or phrase, a sound, a group of sounds, or a pop-culture reference.  It can be a line from a movie or its title.  It can come from a poem, book, or a play.  It could be an idiom, metaphor, or proverb. You could even sing a line from a song.  The box of this game says, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”  That phrase rings true for Dixit as each card yields so many, dare I say thousands, of possible clues.

Creating a good clue is the key strategy of the game.  When a clue is done well, it will help you score points.  If not, your opponents score points.  When the active player states his or her  clue, the other players search their own six cards for one card that matches the stated clue.  Each player places his or her chosen card face down with the active player’s card.  The active player then shuffles together these cards and places them on the numbered spaces on the scoreboard.

 

Each player’s goal is to examine the cards and to find the actual card that was described and played by the active player.  This is tricky because everyone has played a card to match the same clue.  A player votes by placing a numbered voting token face-down on the table.  If a player wants to vote for the card in spot 2, he or she places the token with 2 face-down on the table.   The voting token is placed face down so other players cannot see it. The active player does not vote.

Once everyone has voted, the voting tokens are revealed and placed on the coordinating cards.  If voting token 1 is revealed, it would be placed on top of card 1. The active player then tells everyone which card was his or hers.  This part of the game brings so many surprises!

 

Now, it is time to explain how to score points in the game. This is important because it helps you to understand how to create a clue that scores.   The active player scores 0 points if everyone chooses his or her card.  That means that the clue was too easy or obvious.  If none of the players identify the active player’s card, he or she gets 0 points.  That means the clue was too obscure or difficult.  The active player can score 3 points, if 1 or more players find his or her card but not all the players find the card.  For instance, imagine 5 people are playing. If two people find the clue and 3 do not, the active player would earn 3 points. 

The other players can earn points too.  If everyone finds the active player’s card, the other players earn two points each.  If no players find the active player’s card, all the other players earn two points plus one bonus point per vote on their individual cards.  Let’s say the active player’s card is card 1.  No one votes for it but 3 people voted for card 2.  Whichever player played card 2 would score 2 points plus 3 bonus points.  This is a great aspect of the game-- no matter whose turn it is, all the players are engaged in game play.

Now that you know the scoring, you can understand how to create a clue.  Here are some tips for creating a clue as an active player.  Try to choose a clue that some people would know but not everyone—that is how you will score points.  For example, if you are playing with a group of people, some of which you know enjoy or have studied Greek mythology, you might give the clue “Fighting fate” for this card.

 

The clue refers to the three daughters, or Fates,  who determine the life span of every mortal by spinning and cutting the thread of life.  If you are playing with a different group, a clue referencing Greek mythology might not work.  Another possibility is to  use the idiom, “hanging on by a thread.” Another phrase that would go with this card is "Tug o' war."  That might be too obvious and result in everyone finding your card.  Remember, you want to make a clue that works well for your group.  Thus, you see that every card has infinite possibilities determined not only by the mind of the active player but by the minds of the other players in the game.  It takes skill to craft a clue that will score you points. Also, when you are trying to find the active player’s card, consider what you know about the person who made the clue.  This knowledge will help you choose.

           The cards that other players put out can make choosing the correct card difficult. Remember, the other players can only play the cards in their hands.  Sometimes, they really have to stretch to find something the matches the clue. Sometimes they have something that matches just as well as yours.   Let’s say active player’s clue is “fish out of water”.

          Here are some examples of card that might be played for this clue. Which one is the correct card?

 

             The original card is the first card in the 2nd row. 

As I play this game with other people, I am fascinated by how everyone’s mind is unique and different.

Give  Dixit a try.  My friends and I occasionally have Marathon game days (8-10 hours).  After a game of Catan, Carcassone and Lords of Waterdeep, Dixit is the break I need…. before we start a game of Smash-up or Smallworld.  I love that this is unlike the games we usually play and that it doesn’t take very long.  The game is fittingly called Dixit Journey—you never know where the cards will take your imagination!  Have fun!