Melted crayon art project

Perhaps you've seen some of the melted crayon artwork on PINTEREST, other crafting site, or at a craft fair.  My kids saw some and thought it was perfect for their birthday gift to Grandma - ssshhhh!  Don't tell her!  It didn't take more than a few hours and only because we opted to unwrap all of the crayons we used.  Here is the finished product: 

What you need:

Canvas (we used 8X10)

Non-toxic paint (one for each handprint)

Brush

Sharpies in colors matching your handprints

Crayons

Glue gun and glue sticks (I used about one full stick)

Heat source (I used my Darice heat gun but a blow dryer works just fine)

First, the fun part, the kids loved having their hands painted.  I used a non-toxic paint and made sure they were coated enough to leave an impression but not so much that it would run or leave clumps.  As it works out, Autumn is a lefty and Maddox a righty so it worked out well.  I let the kids choose the colors (though it was a no-brainer since Maddox's favorite color is green and Autumn's is purple).  

While the handprints were drying, we started the hard part - unwrapping the crayons.  This does not have to be done but we wanted the "cleaner" look.  Okay, my daughter wanted the "cleaner" look.  I do have to admit that I like the unwrapped looked now that it is done but I also have to say that this was the most time consuming part of the entire process.  Some of the wrappers did NOT want to come off.  Eventually, we had a pile of paper-free green, blue, and purple crayons.  

Next, the kids sorted the naked crayons and laid them out for me to attach to the canvas with the hot glue gun.  It doesn't take a lot for them to stick as I only glue the top 1/2" or so of the crayons.  I probably should have taken a picture at this point, but it was so fun that I got caught up in the process. 

Finally, the fun part, the kids helped me with the heat gun and you can see where they got a teensy bit overzealous with the heat.  They were quite interested in how the wax melted in different paths and we talked about it as we went which was entertaining for me.  They drew a lot of comparisons to other things (some realistic and some not so much).  I think both kids were sad when the melting was complete. 

I opted to add the kids' names and ages beneath their respective hands simply because it is a gift for my parents and I know how important such things are.  I have this thing about labeling things with their ages anyway.  That's where the sharpies came in ;)

That's it.  That's all there is to it.  Melted crayon art is definitely something we will be doing again since the kids enjoyed it so much. 

P.S. We had some broken tips in our box of crayons....methinks we have another project for those....