This is how we spent the Friday before Hurricane Irene. Making art work. Less than ten dollars of supplies and inspiration from Pinterest, this is a reasonably kid-friendly craft that I love because a) it has the rainbow and b) you can totally customize it to use whatever colors you want. You can coordinate it to match your kids’ rooms, or a specific theme, or do a rainbow like ours. Get creative!
With school supplies on sale, this is the perfect time of year to make this art. You will need a canvas, boxes of crayons, glue and a hair dryer. The canvas was 40% off at Michael’s for a two-pack, the crayons were 40 cents a box (I ended up using four) and the glue was $4. My grand total was $9.60 for individualized art that we could do together as a family. Which you all know is priceless, baby, priceless.
I opened up all the boxes of crayons and removed all the whites, browns, blacks, pinks, aquas and any other non-rainbow colors. Then I arranged them neatly across the top of the canvas in ROY G. BIV order, making sure the Crayola label was front and center for all of them.
Madeline helped by arranging crayons on her coloring book.
Like so. She is not the OCD member of the family.
She also helped me by grouping colors together.
Man, I love crayons. Especially Crayola crayons. And crayon art even more.
Mystic and Nick helped with the heating and holding.
Oh wait. Forgot to tell you. Once you have the crayons arranged in the color order you want, glue them securely to the top of your canvas, from left to right.
Then start to heat them with a blow-dryer. I did it from the front. Mystic sometimes heated it from the back of the canvas. Either way works.
I love this project because you can totally mess with the outcome. If you want more white space, stop when the wax is halfway down. If you want it more full (as we did), then keep on going. Don’t like how a drip fell? Heat that section back up and get the wax moving again.
Our finished product:
Go Crayola! Go us! Go Pinterest!
PS – Want more fun craft ideas? Check out my Crafts board on Pinterest right here. If you’re hooked on Pinterest, but haven’t signed up yet, you need to be invited to do so. Drop me a line at cate AT sweetnicks DOT com and I’ll hook you up.
PPS – Although I’m a touch late, this totally qualifies as my entry in the recent Pinterest challenge.
September 6, 2011 – Bonus Photos
First day of fourth grade. Fourth grade is apparently heaps tougher than we thought. He came home, had a snack, watched a few minutes of tv, complained of a headache and slept for two and a half hours. Re-entry is hard, folks.
Madeline and I hung out with my nieces on Friday night, and this was a present from Sophie, the oldest. My first piece of art work from my niece! I cleared our art gallery (ready to hang new school projects) and Sophie’s princess doll is proudly the first piece hung. Unfortunately, the next day, Sophie had an accident at a local playground and shattered her elbow. She was in surgery on Sunday and is now mending at home. It will be another week before she can get the cast put on, and this is an awful lot for an almost-four-year-old to handle. It’s a lot for anyone to handle. So please keep her in your thoughts for a superfast recovery. Much appreciated, Sweetnickers.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who organized all of my Crayolas by color. It irritated me to no end that the box came all mixed up. Would it be weird or immature if I got my friends together to do this?
Poor Sophie! Thankfully, four year old bones heal EXTREMELY quickly. It would be way worse if this had happened when she was older. As is…in a few months she’ll barely remember that it happened.
I think it sounds like an awesome excuse for a get-together!
Love that project! I also think it’s funny that my boys have the EXACT same lunch box… guessing that you got it at Costco, like us? :)
School starts for us tomorrow… I know re-entry is going to be tough for them since they have been with their grandparents the last couple of nights… going to bed on time will not be easy tonight!
Yup, Costco. Splurged for a rough-and-tumble one in the hopes that it would last the year. Unfortunately, as you saw on Twitter, it didn’t even last the morning… Some things never change.
Cool looking bag that Nick is carrying in his hand. That’s for ???
My first day of first grade, I came home, went right to sleep, and I think I didn’t wake up until the next morning. I was wiped.
Can’t believe your son is already in 4th grade.
Betsy – That’s his lunchbox. And that picture yesterday am was the last we’ve seen of it because he managed to lose it before am snack. Color me not happy.
Love the Crayola artwork — so cool and creative! Mine would have to be mostly reds and pinks, because that’s how I roll, but I love the rainbow.