Melted Crayon Canvas Art

I've seen this idea floating around Pinterest for years, and I finally tried it out this weekend.  I wanted to make something artsy to decorate a little side room that is currently serving as Rhys's art room. I thought this idea would be a perfect fit, plus I was able to repurpose 3 canvases from his old nursery that have been sitting in his closet since our move!

Long story short: I love the end result, but this project does take some patience.  It takes a few minutes for the wax to heat up before it starts melting, but it's oh so satisfying when it finally does!

Materials
2 boxes of 64 crayons
3 white canvases (12x12 inches)
Glue gun
Hairdryer
Drop cloth or newspaper
Cardboard to help support the canvases


To start, I emptied my two packs of crayons and sorted them by color.  I left out most of the tan/brown crayons and the rest fit perfectly across the three canvases.

After I sorted the colors, I arranged them evenly across the top of the three canvases and started gluing them down.  I took off two crayons at a time and just made a small strip of glue to hold down each crayon. I tried my best to line up the wrappers to keep them all uniform.


Next, I took one canvas at a time and propped it against a piece of cardboard in the garage.  I put a drop cloth down to catch any wax that might spray, but I didn't have any problem with that.  I used the lowest setting on my hairdryer and focused on heating up 4-6 crayons at a time.  The high setting probably would have moved this along quicker, but it would've given a more splattered look instead of the cleaner lines I was trying to get.

I let the wax drip a few inches before moving on to the next group of crayons.  I kept the end of the hairdryer pointed at the tips of the crayons, so most of the lines dripped straight down.  Sometimes I used the hairdryer to help a streak of wax melt a little more, or to gently tap a crayon if the wax wasn't dripping.  Overall, it was a very easy project, but melting the wax takes some patience if you want it to drip in clean lines.


Also, shout out to my husband for finding this beautiful light by our office window and suggesting I shoot in here!


I could have taken pictures of these all day!  The colors look so beautiful!