Pinned It, Did it – Melted Crayon Dot Art

One thing I’ve always wanted to be and never even came close was an artist.  I would love to be able to sketch and use watercolors in a way that produced results beyond what a 4-year-old could do.  The chances of that happening in this lifetime are pretty slim. 

Enter in Pinterest. 

I saw some beautiful melted crayon dot art, and it reminded me of a pointillism project I did when I was probably in junior high.  Dots I can do.

Father’s Day was coming up, and Andrew really dislikes us spending money on him but loves DIY creative-y things.  What an opportunity!  I, along with the 17-year-old, the 10-year-old, the 8-year-old and the 7-year-old spent four afternoons working, and at the end of the week, we had finished our entire last name as well as a heart from me.   The finished product now hangs above our threshold.  definitely one of the better DIY projects we’ve done.  (This picture shows just two of the letters and the heart before we hung them.)

 Project:  Melted Crayon Dot Art

Supplies: 

1. Enough 8″ x 10″ canvases (in the art supplies aisle at Wal-Mart or a craft store) for each letter of your first or last name.
2. Large quantity of old crayons in various shades of each color.  Peel them and sort them according to color and place in separate bags for storage.
3. Candles, lots of candles.
4. Printed bubble-type letters cut out to place in the center of your canvas.
5. Tape
6. Newspaper or plastic to cover your working space to protect it from melted crayon and wax.

Directions:

1. Take your cut-out letter; and using double-sided tape, tape a letter in the middle of each canvas.
2. Plan what colors you want to use for each letter, and write the color on the back of the canvas to remind you which colors will be used where.  I used the rainbow progression for our letters.
3. Take the first letter and match it to the corresponding color you assigned it.  Hold the tip of your crayon just over the flame until it is wet and shiny and almost dripping, then quickly touch it to the canvas to form a dot.  If you actually touch the flame with your crayon, some blackening will occur.  Don’t worry.  By the time  you are finished, the black is not noticeable.  If you are a perfectionist, okay, you can worry.  Using the same crayon, continue to make dots randomly in this fashion.  Using this technique, you will need to remelt after each dot.
4. Continue with the other shades of your color until the canvas is covered.
5. Carefully peel off the bubble letter to reveal the canvas. 
6. Continue with the remaining letters.

Honestly, my younger children did start to tire of this after the first day, especially the 7-year-old.  The 10-year-old and the 17-year-old hung in right up to the end.  We all agreed this was a lot of fun and we were very happy with the results. 

By the way, Andrew LOVED it!!!