Melted Crayon Art

This is an easy, straightforward project that delivers a lot of graphic impact for not very much effort. Seriously, the hardest part is unwrapping all the crayons.

You will need:
a blank canvas
crayons, new or old (I needed about 60-70 for my 16" x 20" canvas)
a utility or exacto knife (optional, for peeling the crayons)
hot glue gun
heat tool or a hair dryer with a diffuser or low blower setting

Step 1: Prep the Canvas

First cover your work surface in newspaper.

Then decide what kind of color spectrum you are going to do. Remember you don't have to do just a rainbow. You could do only cool colors, only warm colors, a random assortment, big stripes, etc.

Take the wrappers off all the crayons you're going to use. A quick and easy way to do this is to slit each wrapper with a utility knife. It will then just peel right off.

Next lay out your crayons along the top edge of your canvas until you like how the sequence of colors looks.

Then hot glue each one down right next to one another with the tops flush to the top of the canvas.

Comments

[Missartsy]

Im just not able to melt the crayons they' r Fabre castle , tried iron ,candle and blow drier is there any other better way please tell me ...i soo want to see my work complete!!!!!!

[1littlelady]

A heat gun works really well ..hope this helps :)

[jenneroberts]

Thank you for the inspiration, had too much fun with this. Did a little underpainting and also threw in some pearl powders... interesting effects.

[vcusick]

are you seriously taking the time to cut the wrappers of all the crayons?
Easy version- take your crayons, throw them in a bowl of water for about five minutes. The wrappers will literally fall off the crayons in no time. When I did it i had to help like...maybe 5 wrappers off. the rest just floated to the surface.

[flio191]

I didn't realize crayon art was becoming a thing, but I fully support it!!! Here's a piece of mine using crayons and an iron.

[rusticgreen]

What a beautiful piece of art! Did you put any thing over the crayons before putting the iron on it?

[flio191]

Thanks! Well, it was half taking the iron (craft iron, has no holes) and pushing a crayon against it to drip it down onto the surface, and half scraping off small pieces of crayon onto the surface and then ironing them on. Whenever I changed colors I just wiped the iron with a napkin. There was some parts where I tried just heating up the surface from underneath but it didn't give me the brush-like texture that I wanted. The iron will get messy so I'd recommend either a craft iron (the small cheap ones) or an iron you don't plan to use again (though, I dunno what the holes might to... might be interesting to experiment with the steam function?

[kgulliksen]

I LOVE IT!!!

[mrsbelcher]

Did you create this on canvas? It is just beautiful. It makes me think of fall, my favorite season!

[flio191]

Thank you! I used a giant mat board. Canvas might be interesting too but you'd have to take the canvas off the wood and put it against a hard backing then re-stretch (but it'd make the hard wax crack). But otherwise might be an interesting effect with the pores of the cloth absorbing pigment. Fall is my favorite season too!

[flio191]

oh and i guess a sort of shameless self plug: this is my working portfolio

[rusticgreen]

I tried to view your "working portfolio" -- wouldn't allow - says its too big.
Do you have a website to view?

[flio191]

whoops! over the year i ended up using that domain for something else. if you cut off the 'p' at the beginning it should take you there or here is a direct link!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

That looks so beautiful. Does it wreck your iron though?

[flio191]

Absolutely. Wrecked up my microwave too. worth it!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Microwave too? I agree though. I love it!

[flio191]

I took some bottle ends and cut up some crayons into it, dropped some water in and threw it into the microwave. You'd know it's melted and ready to be sprayed onto the surface once it popped, but it pops colors all over the interior of the microwave. I'm sure I could clean it up but I figured I might do it again anyway so I didn't :P

[friendship12396]

Very nice, easy to do :) heres mine

[rusticgreen]

This is awesome art! In response to "suppose to take the wrappers off" - I beg to differ. Its a matter of choice, and I love yours. If you turned the art work around the wrappers can look like a picket fence.

[vaiomouse8]

so im looking at the ones posted here and i like yours the best
im going to leave the wrappers on mine :)

it looks like when u leave the wrappers on you melt less wax and i like the nice colors and really like the negative space

[friendship12396]

Thanks! Glad you like it!!

[null]

Looks amazing!

[SurfRW]

You're supposed to cut away the papers...

[sjohnson50]

Since when do the words "you're supposed to" have a place in art?

[friendship12396]

Thank you. :) my point exactly...

[friendship12396]

I can do it any way I want to. It still worked didnt it, so why does it matter? I wanted to keep the papers on.

[cmcmillen]

I LOVE it with the papers still in place!

The great thing about art/craft projects is making it your own!! :D

[SurfRW]

chill man, it's called constructive criticism.

[l8nite]

we used to do something similar using crayon shavings, waxpaper and a clothes iron. 1st "sharpen" your crayons into seperate piles or cups. 2nd sprinkle the shavings over the surface to be covered. 3rd cover the shavings with waxpaper and apply heat from the clothes iron. 4th peel off the waxpaper, add shavings if needed or wanted and repeat step 3 and 4 until happy with results.

yours definately took that to the next step resulting in a great piece of wall art

[Judith756]

I use to do the same thing TOOOO many years ago at Vacation Bible School...lol. We also took plain muslin cloth and drew on it, then used the wax paper and "ironed" our artwork. It made it permanent and we used the cloths at napkins when we ate our snacks. Back then once ironed the crayon became permanent and you could wash/no bleach with no problems.
Loved the memory click.

[doormatyay]

i was having a hard time with a hair dryer; the high setting was blowing it too much (i was without a diffuser) and the low setting wasn't hot enough.
if anyone else is having this problem do not despair! i found that holding an iron close to the crayons works very well and you can easily control the heat level!

[capthollyshortlep]

Mine did the same thing, so my friend and I used candles to melt instead. It's not as full of wax as this 'ible, since there was really no diffuser, but I think it turned out quite well:

[capthollyshortlep]

:

[beanersaurus]

My bf Matt and I make custom melted crayon artwork. If you'd like to check it out, here's a link: http://thegrandcrayonyon.tumblr.com - Thank you! :)

[TechyTrish]

Hey, I have a question about your work. I just attempted doing a stencil in my crayon art piece, but the tape coiled and came off as I was blow drying.. . What type of tape or material do you use for your stencils (I used masking)? I really want to do a stenciled piece that actually works! Attached is how mine ended coming out...
Btw I love, love, love your work! :)

[colinskee]

You should give credit to where this idea came from. Her name is Jessica Kerbawy and you can find her website at http://www.jkcreate.net and her blog at http://www.concept-to-object.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html

[l8nite]

Thought I'd let you know I linked your melted crayon art "ible" to my recent "ible"
http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Art-1/

[marcomolo]

that's totally amazing. Great work!

[Neon Panda]

I would love to try this. =)

[yaaameen]

I love the idea this is something i would do every day so fun!!! :D

[puntofisso]

And here's mine :)
One of the best instructables EVER :D

[eggman953]

I did this craft with my friends, she said an I quote, "this is the coolest thing I have ever done". And I must agree with her C:

[Kaptain Kool]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Penolopy Bulnick]

Very nice; I love things that are colorful. What if you attached the crayons to something else and secured it to the top of the canvas but then could take them off afterwards? Then you could use the crayons over for other paintings and experiment with placement and color arrangment?

[kansasa]

I've seen someone put a strip of masking tape at the top and then glue the crayons down to the tape, once they finished melting them they pulled up the masking tape to remove the crayons, seemed to work pretty good. :)

[Flyinseamnky]

Maybe use a metal cookie sheet slightly overlapping the edge of the canvas. It would also help hold and conduct the heat. Or What about pulling the whole crayons up, and then mixing the original colors up? so it looks like the colors are dripping from different color crayons. Oh or put all black crayons that look like they are leaking their colors. You could even mount new crayons still in the original sleeves after removing the melted ones. So many cool ideas! makes me want to run out and get a canvas and a box of crayons!

[belyse3]

Great Idea! Just bought my canvas, gonna get my crayons and try this out.

[Bluemini]

This would be a cool theme for Google Chrome or Firefox...

[mrsbelcher]

Love love love this idea. I'm going to start out with a small canvas and see how that turns out. If it's good I'll try a larger one. Thanks for a simple but beautiful crafting idea!!

[shelleyframe]

OMG, I have been doing encaustic art with my senior art students and have stacks of cheap and varied crayons and wax left over, am SO playing with this technique in class tommorow!!
Thanks heapsly for the inspiration!

[linny]

A quick way to remove paper crayon wrappers is submerge the crayons in a bowl of water for a few minutes first. Let the kids help peel them off.

[JosiePosie76]

I am going to make one tomorrow... My cousin is gay... And they have an assortment of rainbow things around the house... But this is going to be the coolest thing ever! Thank you so much! Also... My mom loves blues...so I think I am going to buy a few boxes of crayons and work on something for her as well.. Awesome idea! You rock!!

[JarredsInstructions]

I just finished mine, it looks great, I learned that you need to blow the crayons from the top, (The Circle) down. Not straight on, if you do the colors fly everywhere and mix and match which doesn't look so well on mine. Some of the crayons melted off the hot glue and slid down the canvas and gives it a really nice abstract rough look. It looks great. Thanks for the inspiration. I really like this instructable and it's worth every one of the five stars I gave it.

[blueangelcat]

when school starts I go and buy crayons for 25 cents! and colored pencils and glue.paper all that really cheap! and it just happens that school is starting in a lot of places!

[Meragness]

i saw this on stumbleupon!!!!!! and wanted to do it so badly but now im in college and cant do stuff like this

[btrudeau1]

Why can't you do this now that you are in college? I am 36 and can't wait to try this!

[Meragness]

oooh misunderstanding! i mean i have limited resources... at home i had infinite crayons and hot glue. i dont feel like paying for them here
ill do arts and crafts til i die.

[btrudeau1]

Ahhh, that makes more sense. ;)

[rattyrain]

I'm sure your school's art department won't miss a few crayons... ;)

[thipp1]

Just a heads up. Crayola crayons work best, some crayons are really oily and when you try to melt them, then oil will run and mess up your creation.

[BRUL]

it's because the crayola crayons have wax as medium. I would indeed not use oil pastels for this.

[Browncoat]

I LOVE this so much!

[avascout]

I wonder what would happen if you laid the crayons end to end instead of side by side. This would make for wider stripes but would it melt all the way down?

[kdickerson_az]

This also looks really good with the wrappers still on. Check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/JKCreate for a professional's take. Great instructable!

[dinglballs]

i think you hung it upside down.

[kellimaier]

This is nice...you can also paint the canvas first for added color or to make a contrasting or harmonizing background.

[SurfRW]

Great! I can make something similar for school! Great project :)

[Stormchaserblue]

to get the wrappers off crayons put them in hot water for about 2-3 min and then the wrappers will "magically" fall off.

[dmdsanchez]

Awesome

[BrittLiv]

I'm definitely going to make this, I just ordered crayons. Thanks a lot for the great instructable!

[lpobiak]

Awesome artwork!

[vez87]

This will make an awesome gift, so doing it! Simple, cheap and fantastic results. Spot on.

[Strangely]

Me too; I love you too. <=)

[DereckNation]

I love you.

[cloudifornia]

My wife would love this!

[sunshiine]

Nice Instructable! Easy enough and quick enough! Thanks for sharing!

[mikeasaurus]

looks so good!

[kazmataz]

So pretty and fun!