Monday, September 26, 2011

Crayon Canvas Craze


I am sure many of you, especially those who are on pinterest, have seen the new Crayon Canvas Craze. People melting a rainbow of crayons onto a canvas that is. It's awesome! It's cheap, easy, and can have many variations. Also, for those with lil ones - it would be a great fun project for kids! Below I have tips in italics and the basic steps in bold for easy browsing.
The "traditional" take on crayon art - Rainbow Falls crayon canvas by JKCreate on Etsy

I decided to make my own variation of a crayon canvas. Now most of them have picked out a pack of crayons, put them in color group order, glued them to the top of the canvas and melted away for al rainbow look! I decided to do a "fall" twist. Here are the items I needed to do this:
  • 96 pack of crayons ($3.97 at Walmart)
  • 2 24 packs of crayons ($0.40/each at Walmart)
  • 1 Canvas ($7 at Hobby Lobby - Normally $12.99, but I kept my eyes peeled for the 50% off week)
  • Blow-dryer
  • cardboard
  • Elmers Glue or Hot Glue
I picked out all the colors of orange, pink, red, yellow, and light brown crayons, then I separated them into their color groups. I laid them out on the edge of the canvas I chose to use and set 2 reds, 2 oranges, 1 yellow, 1 brown, 2 pinks, repeat. I then took my piece of cardboard, which I ripped off the flap of a cardboard box we had, and glued 1/3 of the crayon onto the cardboard - the bottom 2/3s with the point hanging off. I chose to do this because I did not want my crayons on the finished project. If you like the look of crayons -then by all means glue the crayons on the top of the canvas! :-)

Crayons glued to the cardboard
I let this dry for a few hours and ran some errands. When I came back I took my canvas outside, leaned it against our brick wall. I duck taped the cardboard of crayons above the canvas onto the brick so the tips would just barely hung over the canvas. Then the melting begins! Tip {1}: Keep the blow-dryer on medium! Low isn't hot enough, high had crayon wax splattering everywhere lol! I kept the heat setting on high. I began by keeping the blow-dryer up against the crayons until it started turning glossy, once the wax started its dripping I tilted the dryer to blow straight down the length of the crayon and canvas - pushing the wax out and down. Tip {2}: Only blow-dry like 5 or so crayons at a time - they dry rather quickly. You can use your blow-dryer still pointed blowing downward to help guide the crayon wax further down the canvas - it will begin to dry and clump a few inches down otherwise. Even if it does you can go back and blow-dry the clumps to move the wax further down later. Once satisfied, move to the next few crayons and repeat until done and desired look accomplished!
Finished project of my Crayola Canvas - The red kind of over-powers the other colors in the photo, but in person the definition is awesome - to me that is :-)

Tip {3}: Keep in mind the colors you choose and the colors you set them next to. Colors blend! I chose to mix my color groups so they would ultimately blend - if you want defined colors, then be sure to separate your colors of choice. I also wanted a little more definition of colors toward the bottom - so I took my cardboard of crayons angled it towards the middle of the canvas and blew down the length of the crayons so it would drip on the canvas at the place I wanted. I then used my blow-dryer to keep the wax dripping down the length of the canvas.
Angled crayons to get the colors further down

Angled view of canvas - at the top left you can see how quickly the crayon dries by the initial clumping - by using my blow-dryer angled downward I was able to keep the wax moving for as long as I wanted. The clumping adds an extra 3D texture to the canvas and actually looks rather cool.
Hope this makes sense and is easy to re-create! I plan to make a few more and will try to make a How-To Video :-) If you are interested in one for your own house I would be more than happy to make one for you! :-) Keep your eyes peeled for my newest idea involving the Crayon Canvas Craze!

Of course I had to take a Hipstamatic Photo :-)



Finished product hanging on our wall! :-) It's awesome to walk down our hall and see this.

Be sure to check out other fabulous ideas at the link-up party below:

Unveil Your Genius Link Party

4 comments:

  1. Super awesome! I think I would turn the canvas at all angles to get different "run" patterns along with starting the crayon melts in different areas on the canvas. Perhaps using a tool to swirl the melted crayon was could give an extra unique look to the canvas. In art, we always begin with light colors, so I might use light colored crayons first, then begin to slowly add in the darker colors for contrast. You know me...I can only imagine. And here in Texas, on our 100 degree days, I'd bet that taking a potato peeler and grating some was off of the crayons onto the canvas directly and letting it sit under the sun would give weird splats of waxed colors to make the canvas have a different look instead of drips.

    Man, I could go on all day in my artistic mindset on this one.

    Do you remember how I'd take all of your crayon bits and pieces and we'd melt them in a muffin tin to make crayon swirl patties?

    Love you!

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  2. Henry and I have a neat idea - including painting the background and swirls for one above our couch. Henry and I are having so much fun with this idea and all the possibilities. lol

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  3. I've got one of these hanging in my studio to inspire me. :) Aren't they wonderful? I followed you here from "unveil Your Genius". Happy St. Pat's Day!

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  4. This is the best one I have seen, lovely the way it turned out! Will certainly try!!
    Thanks for sharing!
    Andrea

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