P is for Painting

     Today, I had to go register Thing 1 for pre-K. Unfortunately, that wasn't until 1pm. But, she was super excited about it and kept asking if it was time to go. So, I needed something to distract them, even if it was just for 30 minutes.

     The other day, someone posted a cool Masking Tape Letter craft on CafeMom. When I needed a busy craft, I remember it and decided to try my own version.

     I had some painter's paper (mixed media paper for acrylic), so I decided to use that instead of construction paper. Before we started, I tested the blue painter's tape on the paper to make sure that it wouldn't rip. None of the paper came off on the tape. The girls and I used tape to put their first initial on the paper.

Thing 1's paper

     I then gave the girls a pack of water colors and a cup of water and set them loose. I told them that they could paint however they wanted, just to cover all of the white area. True to their personalities, Thing 1 painted squares, not mixing the colors at all, and Thing 2 mixed all the paints as she randomly painted her paper.

Thing 1 painting

     When they were finished painting, we set their papers on a flat surface and let them dry.

Thing 2's painting drying

     We left the painting sitting for about an hour because I wanted them to be completely dry before removing the tape. The kids were excited to remove the tape. And when they pulled it off,  they had a beautiful painting of their initial.

Thing 2

Thing 1

     I hung them up on their art display in their room. Now, they're showing everyone that comes into the house their cool new craft.

If at first you don't succeed...

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried! - Steven Wright

     That is generally the philosophy that I have when it comes to crafts. I am a pretty crafty person, so if something doesn't work the first time, I tend to just ditch it and move on.

     Recently, there has been one craft that I couldn't get right that has just been bugging me. If you remember my Melted Crayon Art post, I said that I couldn't get mine to look like my inspirations. At the time, I found a way to make it work (using a hair dryer), but I didn't give up on the glue gun.

     So, I found another picture that I liked. This one is Thing 2 playing with her umbrella.

     To make it a little different, I painted the entire canvas black. I then traced Thing 2's picture onto the canvas with pencil. I used a white paint marker to fill it in. I had to let it dry completely and go over it a second time to cover all of the black. 

     I made an umbrella out of card stock and taped it around the umbrella on the canvas so that the crayon would run off of it like rain. I also covered all of the white paint with painter's tape.

     I then used my hot glue gun to melt the crayons onto the canvas. Since I kind of knew how my glue gun was going to act, it made it easier to get the look that I wanted.

     I also discovered that, in this case, less is not more. I think that one of my original problems was that I wasn't putting enough crayon on the canvas. I don't think that there is such a thing as "too much" for this craft.

     Here's the final product. What do you think?

Melted Crayon Art

     I have found a lot of uses for broken crayons. One thing I never imagined doing was running them through my glue gun and making "paintings" with them. However, I had a little inspiration, so I decided to give it a try.

     First let me say this, it isn't as easy as it looks. It seems like it would be pretty straight forward. Push crayon through glue gun, drip on canvas. Viola! Yeah, not quite. At one point, my glue gun decided to turn into a hot, melted crayon volcano. So, after 2 disappointing attempts, I abandoned the glue gun for another technique that I read about, the hair dryer.

    I started by picking the picture that I wanted. You need to select one that is going to make a good silhouette. It doesn't matter if there is stuff in the background, you can edit that out. Here's the picture I started with:

     I don't own a light board, so I printed the picture and cut Thing 1 out. I used that as a stencil to trace her silhouette onto my canvas. I then used a black paint marker to color it in.

     Before doing anything else, you need to protect your work space! I thought that mine was well protected. The orange spot that is now on my carpet would beg to differ.

     Since I wasn't starting at the top of the canvas, I used painters tape to attach paper where I wanted to start my crayons. I then used craft glue to attach the crayon pieces to the paper.

     Next, I stood the canvas on it's side so that the crayon would run down as it melted.

     Finally, I used my hair dryer to melt the crayons. It didn't take very long before they started melting and running down the canvas. I used several reds, orange and yellow. In the end, they all ran and mixed together.  Allow the crayon to dry before moving the canvas.

     Here's the final product:

     It didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, but I love the end result.

     What do you think? Will you use the new melty crayon technique in any of your crafts?