So almost everyone knows about the typical melted crayon art where you just line up crayons on a canvas and apply heat to get the streaks of melted wax. Well here is a different version of that same concept, however I added my own little geeky, fan girl twist...the deathly hallows symbol.
What You Will Need
1. Canvas. It doesn't really matter what size or type of canvas you used. However if it's your first time trying this then I recommend using a smaller canvas just in case you mess up.
2. Crayons. In my experience, it doesn't matter what brand of crayon you use, I used both Crayola and the cheaper brands. However it's whatever you prefer. Just make sure you get different shades of the colors you want to use so it has more of the watercolor effect.
3. Masking tape. This will be used to trace the outline of your design. I found masking tape works a lot better than painters tape since it sticks to the canvas a lot better.
4. Hair dryer. This is used to melt the crayons.
And you're probably going to want some sort of sheet or something to do this on since the crayons do tend to splatter bit.
How To Make It
1. First you want to take the masking tape and outline the design you would like to stay white on the canvas. You might want to lightly draw the outline in pencil first and then tape over it. You're probably going to have to cut the tape in small strips, just try to get the edges as straight as possible in order for your design to be straight. Also I would try to stay away from more circular designs unless you have an exacto knife and can just cut away the extra tape. However, to make the circle, such as the one in the deathly hallows, just cut really small pieces of tape instead of using larger strips in order for the shape to actually look circular. It's a pain in the butt, but it can be done.
2. After you are satisfied with your outline, put down whatever sheet or trash bag or whatever you are using to protect the surface
3. It's time to melt the crayons! This part is a tad difficult to explain but I'm going to try my best and hopefully yall with be able to follow. Turn the hair dryer on High (varies with hair dryers, but high works better when trying to initially melt the crayons) and Hot. Grab a crayon, hold it away from the canvas to begin with, and start heating up the crayon; twirling it in your fingers to make sure it gets melted all the way around. Once you realize the crayon is starting to get more wet and melted, while still applying heat, put the crayon on the canvas until you are satisfied with the blob of color. Does your blob just look like a muddy blob of crayon? No worries. Just keep applying heat to the blob until the wax is melted enough that you can control its movements throughout the canvas using the hair dryer.
4. Okay here is how to get the effect like the one I did. I started using the darker colors in the corner and then just began layering the lighter colors as I went across and down the canvas. To try avoiding the sudden contrast of color I tried to pick shades that were close to each other, so the colors gradually got lighter. Another way of avoiding the sudden contrast is when you have different colors heat them enough so both colors are melted enough and position the hair dryer in different ways around the canvas until they are sort of combined. The good thing about this project that if you aren't satisfied with the way it looks, you can always reheat the melted crayons and just try blowing the wax in all different directions and adding different colors until you are satisfied. I'm really sorry if none of that made any sense, but it's one of those projects you just have to experiment with until you like what you get. And don't get discouraged if after five minutes it doesn't look the way you want it. It takes a lot of layering and melting to get these results.
5. Once the melted wax has cooled and dried (it doesn't take long but if you're really impatient use the cool setting on the hair dryer to speed up this process), carefully remove the tape so that none of the crayon around it comes off as well. Some of the crayon might have ran under the tape, but it's fine unless your design is completely unrecognizable. If your design does look horrible (and I'm pretty sure it doesn't!) you can always just cover it up with more melted crayons so the entire canvas is just melted crayons!
Thanks guys for bearing with me through this post and I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. Gotta love that work life...anyways I hope this post helps you in creating a unique version of the melted crayon art. And just so everyone knows, I found this technique on Pinterest from another crafting blog, I just added the Harry Potter effect :) Happy crafting!
Cool thanks!!
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