Art Works! Series – Activity #19: Crayon Hearts
Art Works! is a series of blog posts created by the staff at www.EscapadeDirect.com that offer children of all ages and abilities the opportunity for hands-on art activities that allow them to explore, discover, and express their individual creativity.
We encourage parents to join in on the activities, too, and create their own Art Works!
Art Works! Activity #19: Crayon Hearts
Create works of art using crayons and a bit of imagination! This is a classic art project, and one that will decorate your sunny windows!
This hands-on activity is fun for kids of all ages (even small children) and is a great way to recycle all those old crayon pieces you have around the house.
What You Need:
- Waxed Paper
- Wax Crayons (especially those small broken pieces we all have)
- Handheld Pencil Sharpener (some crayon boxes have one built into the box that can easily be removed)
- Paper Grocery Bag, cut into two panels
- Iron
- Scissors
- Ribbon or Monofilament Fishing Line
- Art Tray or Cookie Sheet
What You Do:
- Place a sheet of waxed paper into an art tray or cookie sheet (the tray makes clean-up easier). We recommend using a 12″ x 16″ sheet of waxed paper, but other sizes will work as well. Fold the waxed paper in half and crease along the fold, then unfold the paper.
- Have your child use a handheld pencil sharpener to create crayon shavings over half of the waxed paper. Kids love this hands-on exerience!
- Continue creating crayon shavings in a variety of colors over half of the waxed paper until the shavings are evenly distributed. You don’t want the shavings to be too thick – just thick enough so they cover the paper.
- Fold the clean half of the waxed paper over the crayon shavings. You may also want to fold up the three open edges of the waxed paper slightly to help contain the shavings (this also helps contain the melted crayons).
- Carefully place the waxed paper onto a paper grocery bag, then cover the waxed paper with another piece of the paper grocery bag. The paper bag will help protect your ironing surface and your iron.
- To melt the crayon shavings, set an iron to low heat and have an adult iron the paper bag in even passes. Periodically check the crayon shavings to see if they are melted.
- When all the crayon shavings are melted, remove the top grocery bag and allow the crayons to cool.
- Use a pencil or marker to trace the shape of a heart onto the waxed paper. Draw a variety of different heart sizes, and try to use as much of the waxed paper as possible.
- Use a scissors to cut the heart shapes out, then hang the hearts in a window. If you are hanging more than one heart in your window, layer them on different length ribbons for an even more impressive effect.
Variations:
- Use any shapes you want to create your crayon suncatchers! You could even cut out letters to spell your child’s name. Encourage children to be creative when they cut their shapes.
- We found a very small cheese grater at a local kitchen store and we use this to create crayon shavings. The grater works much faster than a pencil sharpener. If you use a small cheese grater, make sure to show your child how to hold the crayon to avoid cutting their fingers on the grater.
- When the crayon pieces are too small to easily sharpen, save these small bits to make custom crayons! Just place these pieces into a mini heart-shaped muffin pan and melt them in your oven on low heat. As soon as the crayons are melted, remove from oven and allow to cool slightly before removing from the muffin tin. Trim away any excess pieces to make a smooth new multi-colored crayon! Slip these new shaped crayons into a Glassine Bag, tie with a ribbon, and you have a small gift to give!
You Might Also Like:
Lyra Window Crayons – This quality set of Wax-O-Glas Window Crayons is perfect for window or glass art!
Cray-Pas Oil Pastels – puts the power of beautiful and blendable color into young hands!
Share Your Art Works! Activities!
If you have an Art Works! project that you would like to share, email us a digital picture (or scan) of your project , and we will post it in our Kids Gallery. If you would like, include the artists first name, age, and your state. It’s fun for kids to see how other children interpreted the project!
As always, encourage your children to come up with their own new ideas for art – and make sure to check back next week for another Art Works! activity in this series!
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