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!

Don't Let Summer Boredom Happen To You!

    

    It’s summer vacation and you’ve been looking forward to it--until the 3rd official day of summer at 8:30 a.m.  rolls around….One of your children says the inevitable, “I’m bored. There is nothing to do.”  You resist the urge to roll your eyes as you list all the movies, toys, games, and activities that are in your house.  Of course, your child then says, “I’ve already done all of that.”  (Which may or may not cause your blood to boil and steam to begin flowing out of the top of your head.) And thus begins summer: the season when your kids drive you crazy (and you fantasize about the first day of school for 3 months straight.)

         Don't let summer boredom happen to you!  Here are some fun activities for you to do with your kids this summer that will keep your kids (and you) happy.

Cook with your kids!  Kids love to cook.  Let your children choose a few recipes and teach them how to make them.  Make each recipe several times. At the end of the summer, the kids can make the dinner for you (with your supervision). 

Exercise with Adventures to Fitness!  If you haven't heard of Adventures to Fitness, you are missing out.  They produce exercise videos for kids but it is not just exercise. The kids learn so much as they go on adventures to Africa, Australia, and even the past!  It has lots of running and jumping (and laughing.)  Go here to find out more. There's a free trial available if you'd like to try it out. 

Create a board game!  

This can provide hours of entertainment as your child plans the rules and objectives, creates a board, and designs dice or cards.  Of course, there is also the joy of testing out the game!  You can find tons of blank game board templates on line that your kids can customize.  You can also make your own dice out of card stock or put stickers on the side of regular dice to customize the sides.  There is no end to the creativity (or the fun.)

Build a giant Lego city! I don't know about you but we have enough Legos to build a small army.  Find a large area of you house that you can give up for about a week and just build. 

Make a music video! My kids love to do youtube karaoke. Your favorite song probably has a karaoke video with the words on youtube.  Practice singing and dancing to it with your kids.  Choreograph simple moves.  Choose fun outfits and accessories.  Then, perform the song and record it with your cell phone.  It may not be perfect but your kids will love it.  

Write letters!  I know this sounds kind of boring but your kids are going to love it once they start getting letters in return.  Kids can also design their own stationary and envelopes.

Write a book!  This can be a comic book, a short story, or a picture book. Kid's love to make pop-up books too. Work with you kids to plan, create, and share  a book on a topic they love.  Invite friends and family over when the book is finished and allow your children to read it to them.

Build a giant fort inside! Help your children build a fort using pillows, blankets, chairs, etc.  See how big you can make it and challenge them to come up with ideas on how to make it bigger and better.

Let your kids start a blog!   Blogs don't have to be public.  You can share them with just family and friends.  If kids have their own blog, they can blog about what they are doing as well as topics that interest them.  Once they get tired of a topic, they can blog about something else. They could do this all summer long and never get bored!

Have a Pirate Dinner! Everyone wears an eye patch and you sit down to dinner together.  Since pirates are not civilized, you have to eat with you hands. (Yes, I said eat with you hands.)  You can serve Sp-argh-etti and garrrrrrlic bread.  Slurping is definitely allowed! Talk like pirates, eat like pirates, act like pirates.  What could be more fun? 

Flat Stanley!  

I hope you all remember these books from when you were kids.  If not, run to the library right now and check it out.  Flat Stanley is the story of a boy who get's flattened (and sent through the mail.)  You children can create their own Flat Stanley and send him out into the world.  Whoever receives your Flat Stanley takes a picture of themselves with Stanley, sends the picture to you, and sends Flat Stanley to another person.  You can do this on your own with people you know or go here to register for the Flat Stanley Project.  They have a list of registered participants you can send you Flat Stanley too.  Flat Stanley has been all over the world! Give it a try and find out where your Flat Stanley goes.  

Now, you have plenty of activities to stop boredom this summer! Go have some fun!

--Chrissy