When Life Gives You Heat, Melt Things!
The heat has reached Houston. The dog days of summer are here! So what’s a girl to do besides a fun summer craft that utilizes that heat?
Today it was 93 degrees at 8pm. I’m pretty sure my underwear melted. It’s just miserable and will be for a few more weeks.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Houston but the first really hot week of the summer is always the worst as your body gets used to the heat.
This is another old but good post from 2011. But! It’s the perfect project to try right now with kids. It’s hot and crayons are cheap. Grab you a canvas or two on sale from Hobby Lobby and learn about the effects of the sun combined with a little mini art lesson for kids. It’s a win-win situation.
Plus have you ever sat there and watched a crayon melt? I have to admit that it kinda perked my curiosity as well. We might try this project again tomorrow!
I made this years ago when the drippy crayon canvas craze rolled through the internet. But this one is different because the result is more organic and almost has a hint of modern art. This project really is all about the effects and power of the sun’s heat. I don’t know if I should classify it as a science project or an art project.
To do this project all you’ll need is a blank canvas and crayons. If you’re not going to hang it as art you could probably just use a large white sheet of paper. You can grab a cheap box of crayons on one of the back to school sales (my favorite time of the year!) or you can use old crayons.
Start by removing the paper of the crayons. (These are old pictures – look at the chubby little fingers!)
Then we did what anyone that needed melted crayons when it was 105 degrees outside would do, we put the whole canvas outside with crayons scattered on top of it in the sun.
It was extremely hot outside that day and the cement was frying our bare feet.
At first I doubted if it was going to work because nothing happened for the first ten minutes. But slowly and surely it started to melt.
And once it started to melt, it went fast!
After about 35 minutes the crayons were mostly melted. I took a small bowl and placed it gently under the canvas. Then I spun the canvas!
Crayon flew everywhere! It was on my foot.. the fence.. the cement. If you do this move the canvas out into the grass before you spin it and don’t wear pants or shoes! (ok wear pants outside but keep your ankles bare!)
The spinning helps to mix the colors in crazy patterns that you couldn’t get by tipping it side to side. But one warning – the crayons are hot. If you’re going to do this than let an adult spin it. You could even let the kids “paint” using a paint brush through the melted crayon but it is still hot!
Another idea is to give kids straws and let them blow the melted crayon around the canvas.
There’s so many great things you can do! Just remember it’s warm to the touch and it cools and hardens very quickly. You have to work fast or put it back out and let it melt some more!
That is dried crayon splattered all over my foot and ankle from when I spun the canvas. It was a dirty job but well worth it. Want to see why?
So pretty. Then when I turned my back a cute child drug their fingers through it and spread the colors a little bit more.
We displayed this in our playroom for a long time until we needed the shelf space from where it was living. I think we will make another one tomorrow and this time maybe try to blow the wax around using straws!
My mother in law later asked me who the artist behind this painting was! Ha! It’s your grandkids and I’ll sell it to you for $1,000 or braces for all three kids!
I love it. Do you? What’s another way you could use the sun and crayons?
Mark says
Saving this for when we get a crazy hot day in Chicago. Thanks for sharing!
We typically have to melt crayons in the oven. I wrote about how we’ve made shapes from melted crayons on our family blog: http://yeadadshome.com/3-mistakes-to-avoid-when-molding-crayons-into-new-shapes/