Melted Crayon Pictures and Sun catchers

Since I had the crayons, graters and iron out for the last step of our Monet Paintings (click here for that post) I decided we should do some melted crayon paintings along with one of my all time favourite crafts, melted crayon sun catchers.

1. Melted Crayon Paintings (with watercolours)

What you need:

• Crayons
• Mini graters
• Wax Paper
• Iron (or hairdryer)
• Watercolour paper
• Liquid Watercolours
• Salt
• Oil pastels
• Permanent markers

Close up of melted crayon combined with watercolour and salt

How to:

• Hand out watercolour paper
• Ask the children to draw a picture in permanent markers or oil pastels on their paper
• Hand out crayons and graters
• The children can then grate the crayons onto their pictures.
• They will need to use their fingers to push the crayon into the place they want.  Some may choose to do a more abstract painting, that's Ok just let them enjoy the process.
• Place a sheet of wax paper over the crayon shavings and then iron or use a hairdryer to melt the wax.
• Paint a layer of liquid watercolour over the melted wax painting to add a background and more colour.  The wax will resist the paint and show through.  
• I provided salt as well if they also wanted to add a speckled look.

The Results:
Pretty cool hey?

I had one student who was away at the end of last term so she did her Monet picture using this technique.  It turned out beautifully.  A great alternative for a Monet lesson when time is limited (easily done in 40 mins).

 2. Melted Crayon Sun catchers 

This idea comes from Martha Stewart.  Click here for her post.

What you need:

• Crayons
• Mini graters 
• Wax Paper
• Iron or hairdryer
• Hot glue gun
• Fishing line

How to:

• Fold a piece of wax paper in half
• Open up, grate crayon onto one half then fold over the clean side so the crayon is wedged between the two pieces
• Melt with iron or hairdryer (I did this step however the children loved to watch this and see the crayons melt)
• Cut out into shapes (I let the children do what they wanted here, some chose one large shape, others did lots of small shapes)
• Use a hot glue to glue the shapes onto a piece of fishing line (I did this step)
• Hang up and admire (I just used blu tack to attach to window)

The Results:
Very pretty with the sun shining through....

Note: Wax paper is available from Coles

Cheers
Fiona