DIY crayon painting

I saw this idea on pinterest, and followed the link to etsy to this great piece. However if you follow the link you will note the price. Ridiculous for what it is! And way out of our budget for sure.

Here is the above mentioned piece that is selling currently for $70.

Love it? Want it? Well good, cause I will show you now how to make it for a mere $15.

Supplies:
crayons (Target has packs of 24 on sale for a mere 40 cents)
canvas of your choice size (Hobby Lobby has a sale on their canvas of 40% off)
superglue to affix the crayons
hair-blow dryer

I got all the supplies for a total of $15 and I already owned a hair blow dryer.


Instructions:
To begin I HIGHLY suggest you do this somewhere in a large space since it tends to splatter. Also make sure to cover the floor with newspaper in a large radius around your workspace. You'd be amazed as to where the melted crayon splatters once you're done.

Once you organize and attach your crayons tip down at the top of your canvas in the color scheme you want, fix the canvas so that it is at a bit of an angle, but not so flat that the wax won't run. I suggest only a couple inches difference in the top and bottom end locations. Make sure you have the canvas up above your hip height so that it is easy to control the flow of the wax.

Once you get started there are three huge tricks to getting this the way the 'professional & expensive' option has it.

1. keep the hair blow dryer on hi heat and hi blow power so as to get the smoothest wax lines as possible. Also make sure you don't start at one end and then intermittently move around. Pick one edge to start and then keep melting that section until its all melted the way you want it to be and then continue to the other side melting appropriately.

2. when starting melting, melt the bottom of the crayons and then slowly move upwards until your hair blow dryer is straight up and down directed at the very top of the crayons. This is the best way to get all the wax out of the crayons and to ensure a good flow.

***be aware, as the wax melts farther down the canvas, it will start to cool and may stop farther up then you want. Just help the wax go down by directing the heatflow going over the cooling wax lines and use the air to push it down farther.***

3. as you can see in the 'expert' crayon line painting, they do not melt all the wax and cover the ENTIRE canvas. They leave some pretty wax lines, and some space at the bottom. It makes it more artistic.

And in the end with some due dilligence you will have some an amazing painting that people will ask you where you got it/how you made it/mention how cool it is. Every single person who has seen it has said how cool it is. I know exactly where I'm going to put this in our new apt. Happy melting!

-Mel