Thursday, April 28, 2011

Art Time - Painting with Melted Crayons

close upWe did this little art project a couple of days before St. Patrick’s Day; I liked the idea of using crayons to paint a rainbow, and it turned out better than I imagined.  M loved this and we’ll definitely do it again sometime soon.   I first saw the idea in a MaryAnn Kohl book (either Scribble Art or Preschool Art) about two years ago, but have since seen it around the blogosphere a couple of times too.

Using melted crayons to paint a bouquet of flowers would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift, or any spring-time sort of artwork!

We began with a bucket full of M’s “naked” (no paper) crayons.  He loves removing the paper and sharpening crayons, so this step was already done.  Seriously, if you need an activity for a rainy day, have your child peel paper off of crayons and then sharpen them with a crayon sharpener.  M could do this all day!Crayons with paper removed  

Next we chose several crayons in various shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.  We broke them up (lots of fun!) and placed them by color into an old muffin tin, lined with paper cups:colors sorted into a muffin tin


I placed the muffin tin in a 400 (Fahrenheit) degree oven.  It took about 10 minutes for the crayons to completely melt.  In the meantime I boiled some water and poured it into a cake pan.  Once the crayons were melted I set the muffin tin into the cake pan too.  The hot water was there to keep the crayons melted, as they tend to harden pretty quickly.  If you have a warming tray you could use that instead.  I really need a warming tray!  :)melted crayons in a pan of hot water


I had pre-drawn our design and M used q-tips to paint it with the melted crayons:painting with q-tips (1)

painting with q-tips (2)     painting with q-tips (3)


The crayon went on very thick and created an incredible texture.  I just loved it!wonderful texture! 

M’s finished shamrock and rainbow:finished artworkThis looks so much more amazing in real life. :)

It was so much fun, we just had to make something else, so a quick heart was drawn and painted (and Mama got in on the action this time!):melted crayon heart

 

Linking to:

abc button

Have a beautiful day! :)

12 comments:

  1. This looks like so much fun!!! We need to try it at our house!

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  2. That's really neat. I've never seen that before. Shared it on facebook and twitter. =)

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  3. Wonderful! Love the vibrant rainbow colors!
    We did this too, check it out!
    http://dillydaliart.blogspot.com/2011/02/melty-crayons.html

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  4. What a great idea. The only concern I have is heat, but I think our almost-5-year-olds can handle it.

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  5. I haven't seen this before! Great different use for old crayons! Bookmarking to do later!

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  6. that looks awesome! I've never seen it before, but I KNOW my kiddos would love it! thanks for posting.

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  7. I bet the end result is gorgeous and has a lovely texture! I'm gonna share this on FB - I'd love for you to stop by It's Playtime and share with everyone there too!

    Jamie @ hands on : as we grow

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  8. Lovely. We did this at preschool, but not as successfully as you. I forgot they were in the oven and nearly gassed us all with burnt crayon fumes :)

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  9. Love this idea - Going to give it a try soon! Thank you for sharing

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  10. Oooh how fun and don't the colours all look wonderfully bright! I bet this was a much loved activity!!!

    Thank you so much for stopping by at Kids Get Crafty and sharing it with us!

    Maggy

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  11. My DD9 has been obsessed lately with shaving crayons....to what end, I don't know. But I think this project will help her fill her need! Thanks for posting. I'll put it out on our Art shelf next week. I'm sure she'll choose it!

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  12. These are just gorgeous! Thanks for the inspiration!

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