Raining crayon art

So given I have only just started this blog, there are going to be a long(ish) list of crafty things that I have done already. So I’m going to start trying to catch up on them. And I’ll probably through some new ones in too!

So 4 years ago, I decided to paint room. I went for the moody grey with a black feature wall. But given that I’m not actually moody enough to consistently require a black and grey room, it was always the plan to lighten it up with a piece of artwork. Unfortunately for me I’m a student. Student = broke. So I decided to get my craft on, browse pinterest and DIY it.

I stumbled across crayon art, the one that did the rounds about 4 years ago. Where you melt down crayons to create a picture, I did that.

It started off wellish. I had read on one of the many sites that tell you how to do it that the easiest way is to use a hot glue gun. I didn’t want to ruin the hot glue gun that I already had, so I took myself of to the shop to buy another cheap one.

I get myself all sorted, a canvas painted black (to match my moody wall and I thought that the black would make the coloured crayons pop), a rainbow of crayons, and my hot glue gun. Then horror struck, my crayons didn’t fit into the glue gun. So the rain affect that I was going for was not going to work by just running it down the side. So I tried taping it to the top and getting the hair dryer on it. That also didn’t work (though I have no idea why).

So eventually I just put the crayons on the hot end of the glue stick until it had melted a bit, and then dropped it onto the canvas where I wanted it.

I’m quite proud of the final result!

If you are wanting to do something like this yourself (which I’m sure you will manage to do much easier than I did!) here are my tips:

•  Go in with an idea of what you want to do. I wanted to do a story of someone playing in the rain (hence the blue/ grey, and the coloured one). It was based on the quote “life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain” cause that was the phase I was in when I made it. But I still love it now
•  Find a hot glue gun that fits your crayons. I bought one of the thin glue ones which didn’t fit my Crayola crayons. If you want to splurge on the big one than I’m sure your life will be so much easier
• Splurge on a glue gun. You will almost certainly ruin the one you use. So whether you want to use the one that you already have, or buy a new one specially for this project, you will need 2. Unless you like to have pretty coloured crayons all over your future projects, but that’s really your call
•  Paint everything else after the crayons. It may sound obvious, but it wasn’t to me. I was so excited to see my art come together that I painted that white bits first. Then I sploted melted crayon all over my white parts. Good news though! The paint covers the crayon really easily. I just put the tip of the hot glue gun on the bits that were in the area I was painting over (to flatten them), then a coat of white paint covered it completely
•  Have fun! Clichés are always fun, but in the case of crafty things, this one is always important. You can always buy a piece of art to go on your wall, so there really is no reason to stress! Worse case scenario you can do the good ol’ fashioned paint splash.  

Till next time! And my next project!

Dat girl