Tag: Crayons

Crayon Slide

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It’s raining and it’s pouring… and we really miss the playground! So this morning, I surprised the kids by bringing our toddler slide in from the back patio, dried it off, and had it waiting for them after breakfast.

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My original intent was to turn this into a craft, too. I taped a long sheet of butcher paper onto the slide, and set out some crayons. The idea is that kids can hold a crayon as they slide down, in one hand or both, and leave a wiggly trail behind.

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It turned out that neither kid liked drawing on the descent. I tried taping together a bundle of crayons, thinking this might make it easier, but still they didn’t love the process.

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Instead, Travis and Veronika invented their own version of the game: they would slid down the slide, then scribble on the paper at the bottom, then race around to go again.

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I was so proud of their turn-taking!

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We had surrounded the slide with pillows to avoid any mishaps when falling, which meant the game turned into tumbling around on pillows, too. What a great way to bring an outdoor playground in!

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Melted Crayon Pumpkins

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Melted Crayon Pumpkins (6)

After melting crayons to make planets, Travis wanted more melt-y fun this morning. So we thought we could decorate pumpkins this way!

Our pack of crayons had multiple hues in the red, orange, and yellow family, so I took all those from the box and soaked them briefly in water. This will help the wrappers slip right off. Snap each crayon in half.

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At first we tried arranging them around the stem of our medium-sized pumpkins, but realized they were going to slide off, as they was not enough surface area to rest on.

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So then we thought to do the project on our biggest pumpkin, even though the original intent was to save this one for carving. Now, although the crayons could balance, they flew off as soon as we turned the hair dryer on!

Thinking quickly, we backtracked to our medium pumpkins (phew, the big guy can safely await carving day), but this time I used a dab of hot glue to secure each crayon near the stem.

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Success! Now we could turn the hair dryer to high heat without the crayons flying off. It’ll take a few moments of patience, but sure enough, they’ll begin to ooze and melt.

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This was fantastic fun, all the more so because the goriness of melting crayons just feels downright Halloween-y. It takes longer than I would have thought, but Travis insisted on watching every dripping, melting moment.

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He loved when rivulets of wax would drip down but cool almost instantly (in much the same way that icicles form), leaving neat strings of wax behind.

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These were fun to snap off, too!

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Keep going until all your crayons are completely melted.

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One note of caution: the melted wax will fly further than you think, due to the force of air coming out of the hair dryer. So be sure to cover your surface area completely with wax paper or newspaper.

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The end result is a beautiful way to decorate your pumpkins with no carving knife!

Melted Crayon Planets

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Melted Crayon Planet (3)

Here’s a novel way to talk about the different colors of the various planets in our Solar System, while making a neat piece of art. Kids are sure to love this craft because anything involving melted crayons is just cool.

We only had two paper plates, so decided to make a blue and green one for Earth and a orange and yellow one for Jupiter.

I cut the wrappers from jumbo crayons, and first we tried making small pieces by grating them on the large holes of a grater.

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This didn’t work that well, so I ended up chopping the crayons with a knife instead. Arrange the pieces as you want them to look on each paper plate, then begin microwaving at about 1 minute intervals until the wax melts (you may need less time, depending how thick your crayon pieces are).

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As they start to melt, swirl the colors into the design you want with a toothpick. Our Earth came out pretty neat!

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The orange and yellow, unfortunately, mostly just blurred together for Jupiter, but we added next textured lines with a toothpick.

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Without even a single prompt, Travis realized, “Mom, we need the giant red spot!”. Simply add pieces of red crayon to one portion of your plate for that.

If you have enough plates and crayons, go ahead and make all eight planets!

Color Match

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Color Match (7)

Veronika is showing great interest in colors now. She knows all the words of the rainbow, but adorably gets them all wrong. “Yellow!” she’ll say with confidence, holding a blue crayon. “Purple!” she calls out, to just about anything. So today we played this little game to help associate each color with the correct word.

I set out pairs of construction paper and crayons, sticking with only four colors so as not to overwhelm her. We used: blue, red, yellow, and green.

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For each color, I showed her the crayon and said (for example), “Yellow. Can you find me the yellow paper?” I then directed her to the right sheet so she could draw yellow on yellow.

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Repeat with the remaining colors, or reverse it: “Here is blue paper. Can you find me the blue crayon?”

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After she’d scribbled for a while, I wrote the name of each color on the paper, using black crayon.

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Don’t expect your toddler to get this “right” on the first try, of course, as that’s not the point. These early color games are all about introducing the concept.

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And of course she loved just scribbling.

National Crayon Day

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Happy National Crayon Day! Travis, Veronika, and I celebrated this fun “holiday” with two projects, plus the perfect crayon book: Harold and the Purple Crayon.

While the kids were busy, I made a batch of purple crayon play dough. For this you’ll need:

3 cups flour

1 and 1/2 cups salt

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 jumbo purple crayon

2 cups water

Combine the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a bowl. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Remove the paper lining from the crayon and chop into pieces. Add to the oil and stir until melted. Slowly stir in the water, then add the dry ingredients. Continue to cook for a minute or two, until the play dough pulls away from the sides of the pot.

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Turn the dough out onto a cutting board. Let cool slightly, then knead a few times. It makes a fantastic dough, and it’s now ready for play!

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We read Harold and the Purple Crayon to set the stage, then got our hands messy with the purple play dough!

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I suggested recreating a few of the drawings from the book like the apple tree or a house with a window.

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Travis just loved making purple worms, which soon led to a very elaborate game in his head!

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Veronika loved pulling up bits of the dough.

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Oh no, she grabbed the “ocean” from under Harold’s boat!

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In other words, the kids had a blast. I thought they might play with it all afternoon.

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But we had one more crayon project to go. There was a collection of rocks on our patio thanks to a family walk on the beach last weekend, and I set a few of them in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. (Note: I’m told you don’t want to heat them much longer than that, or they may explode, although that could just be urban legend).

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Remove one rock at a time with tongs and place on foil or parchment paper on a table. Using jumbo crayons with the liners removed, I showed Travis how to press one against the hot rock. It instantly melts!

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This had big wow factor, and made for fun art.

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Travis loved watching big runnels of color drip over the rocks, although I showed him how to get a little more artistic and deliberate with his colors, too.

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These would look so pretty in a garden! Happy National Crayon Day.

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Soap Crayons and Bath Paint

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Soap Crayons Bath Paint (4)

Some baths are for getting clean, but sometimes a bath is meant for playing! To wit, this afternoon I treated Veronika to an extra long bath just so she could enjoy some arts and crafts in the tub.

The bath is a perfect place for your toddler to experiment with art. What’s easier than a mess that can literally be washed down the drain?

We started out with soap crayons. You can make your own, but I skipped the labor of love and instead purchased a set from Sud Smart Bath Toys.

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Unfortunately they snapped into small pieces easily, but that didn’t deter Veronika from having a blast.

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Imagine her delight that she could scribble everywhere without being reprimanded!

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I made lots of squiggles and swirls for her, too, since you have to press hard with these crayons and her efforts didn’t always produce much color. Since we’re working on her budding vocabulary and object recognition, I drew simple shapes that she knows the word for, like the sun and birds.

Next up, we swapped out the crayons for paint! For an easy bath paint, look no further than the medicine cabinet: foamy shaving cream.

I squirted a generous amount of shaving cream into each of three cups and added a few drops of natural food coloring to each, resulting in pretty pastel colors. Insert a paintbrush into each color.

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As with a recent edible paint, Veronika first just loved plunging the paintbrush up and down in the mixture.

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Once I showed her how to smear it on the tub walls, she was game!

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I also lathered some on one wall in a thick canvas, hoping she would run the paintbrush through.

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She was more into the fact that she could paint it on her hands, though. Look mommy!

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Throw in a little education if you want, writing letters (your child’s initials are always fun) or shapes. And when it’s done, just rinse it down the drain.

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The Scribble

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The Scribble (2)

It was bound to happen: Veronika discovered that she can color on the walls (luckily with washable crayons!). So here’s an ingenious hack to foster your toddler’s artistic impulses with a safer way to color.

I used magnets to hang a large sheet of craft paper on the fridge and sat Veronika down in front of it with a few markers. She didn’t need me to tell her to start coloring; she immediately launched into the art of the scribble.

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Aside from one mommy stick figure, this drawing was 100% Veronika’s. She loved switching up the colors.

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She also was very focused on putting cap to marker in between colors, a great chance to work those fine motor skills!

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As she drew, I talked about how the color on the paper was a “yes” (use sign language here to reinforce the idea!), but that other places were a “no”, like the floor or her hands.

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This will help a toddler start to learn that art belongs on paper, for now at least!

As for those crayon marks on the wall, here’s an ingenious trick: Heat the area with a hair dryer for about 30 seconds to melt the wax. Then scrub off the remaining streaks with soap and water. Ingenious!

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Melted Crayon Suncatchers

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It’s so fun to harness the power of the sun when you make art in the summertime. Travis and I used melted crayons in a project once before, but that one relied on the indoor heat of a hairdryer. This time, we put the sun’s heat to work!

To set up, lay a piece of black construction paper on a baking sheet. The dark surface and the metal will help absorb as much of the sun’s heat as possible. Cut two equal sheets of wax paper, and place one on the black paper.

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The next step was a bit tricky: remove the paper wrapper from crayons and use the edge of a craft stick to shave off bits of wax. Travis found this to be quite difficult, and in all honesty, I did too.

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After he’d tried for a bit, I made sure our wax paper was covered with enough shavings. Cover that with the second piece of wax paper.

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Now place in direct sunlight (just like we did with a solar oven a few days ago)! Depending how hot the day is, your crayons may need anywhere from 1 hour to several in order to melt. You can press down, on occasion, to help the process along.

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To turn it into a suncatcher, cut the wax paper into rectangles or other shapes, and punch a hole in the top of each piece.

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Thread them onto a dowel (or attach with string), and hang up in the window to catch the sun.

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What beautiful sunshine!

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Leaf-Shaped Crayons

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Back-to-school plus a drop in the temperature around here has us thinking about all things fall, even though it’s not quite autumn yet. Making leaf-shaped crayons was the perfect way to kick off the season!

First, we dumped out all of our crayons and I asked Travis to help me select the ones in fall colors – browns, oranges, yellows, and reds. This was a nice reminder for him of the upcoming season and what we can expect to see on the trees.

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Grown-up step: peel the paper from the crayons. (Note: making a slit with an X-acto knife first helps).

Travis was a big fan of helping to snap the crayons into small pieces!

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We filled a leaf-shaped silicone mold (available at craft stores or Amazon) with the small pieces.

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Place in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, until the crayons are completely melted. It will help to place your silicone mold in a larger baking dish, so you can easily remove from the oven.

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Let cool completely, then pop the crayons from the mold and get drawing!

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Melted Crayon Art

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My son loves appliances, which he loves to play with (unplugged) under careful adult supervision. So when I saw this craft involving a hairdryer, I knew we had to give it a try.

I purchased a small canvas (8×8 inches) at the craft store, and cut the wrappers off a rainbow of crayons. You’ll want new crayons with nice pointy ends for this project, so it’s not the best option for recycling broken ones.

We arranged the crayons along the top of the canvas in roughly rainbow order, singing a rainbow song as we worked, and glued them down. Let dry completely.

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Then it was time to make some art! Cover your work area with newspaper, aim the hairdryer at the canvas, and turn on to the highest setting. He couldn’t believe I was letting him down this!

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With a guiding grown-up hand, we got right up close to the crayons. Now they were really starting to melt!

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Let the wax cool, then find some place to hang your work of art!

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