I found a new use for crayons, I wish I would have figured it out years ago when my house was full of crayons in all forms, there were times that I had ten gallon size bags of broken crayons of all colors and sizes.  With three kids and the insistence that a new box of crayons was bought every school year, whether it was on the school list or not, we always had crayons.  Alas, all of those broken crayons are gone, tossed when we moved out of our house in to the RV/semi truck to live life on the road.  Today, I went and bought new crayons to craft with.

We got to the LA area in the early afternoon, picked up Haley to spend time with her and then spent the next two hours figuring out how we were going to spend our night.  I had been looking for something fun to do all week.  I checked Trip Advisor, I looked for specific things, nothing really struck my fancy.  We talked about Joshua Tree (the wind was crazy yesterday), the USS Iowa (our friend Eric is working on the refurbishment, but he wasn’t there yesterday), Rocky Horror (not til Saturday night), Tea Ceremony (not this weekend,  nothing was sticking, so when Haley suggested we do a craft, I was totally game.

We went on Pinterest to the Craft & DIY section and were cruising through that when we came across melted crayon art.  Perfect, it had all the right qualities, no investment needed, no permanent tools, something that could be done in a hotel room, a trip to WalMart and we were crafting.  I know people who are artists, I am not one, but I can craft with the best of them.  These are the instructions we followed, and they were good, but we discovered some more things that will make crayon art easier for you.

• Get a big bag of tea lights, when wax melts on to it, the flame is hard to keep brilliant, get a new one out when ever it gets harder
• The flame will blacken lighter colors, just know that is an imperfection you live with, it’s ok, but your colors won’t be pure
• Hold your candle in one hand above your piece, you will get more color faster because the crayon doesn’t have as far to travel, so the wax is still hot
• Press the crayon to the canvas (or tile) – make a dot
• Pick a small canvas to start – a 4×4 or 6×6 tile would be good
• Line up your colors so you know what you’ve used, they all look the same without their wrappers (I melted off the non sharpened end so I could set them down in the opposite direction after use)
• If you want to blend your colors, put the flame directly to your work after all your wax is on, it will smooth out your palette, just know if you left white space, your colors may run, so be careful
• HAVE FUN, it’s like planning an event or a party, no one knows what you had envisioned unless you tell them, since they can’t seen your mind’s eye, they will think you did it perfectly.

We had a great time and I’m already planning my next piece, it’s a great new medium for anyone, although not recommended for kids, for about $6 you can get started.  I’m counting this as something new on my list of 50, check out What’s It All About and feel free to subscribe, either by email or through WordPress, we have a lot more living to do this year.