Melted Crayon Art

Let's take another breather from all the hardcore house work and focus on something a little more do-able for...well people like me.  When our offer was accepted on the house, to the time we closed on it, it was about a month and a half.  Clearly, due to the long wait, I was pretty antsy just thinking about all the different ways I wanted to decorate the rooms.  I wanted to go out and start buying patio furniture and lights and bedroom sets.  Basically, Tony told me to slow it down and that I would be crazy if I went out and bought all those things before we moved in;  I guess looking back now, that would have been pretty crazy.  So instead of going out and buying furniture, I decided to paint a portrait for the new house (for the movie theater room in the basement to be exact).  I saw a melted crayon painting idea that I absolutely wanted to try.  It seemed pretty simple, and boy it was!

I went to Joann Fabrics and bought:
 -canvas (however small or large you want it)..mine was $12.00
-hot glue gun (I bought the cheapest one $2.50)
-Sharpie Paint  marker, $5.00

I also went to Big Lots and bought:
-crayons (only $1.00 for 1 of the BIG packs...score!)

I told Tony of my idea and he agreed that painting a canvas is a lot more do-able project than buying furniture.  So being the computer genius he is, we took a picture of ourselves (below) and he turned it into a silhouette that was large enough for the canvas that I bought.

Don't mind our messy apartment....remember we were in the process of moving.

After he turned that picture into a silhouette on the computer, I traced the picture onto the canvas with a pencil.  I placed a light underneath the canvas to help me be more exact.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures during the tracing)

Next came the fun part, melting the crayons!  Since we decided to hold the umbrella for our picture, I chose rain-like colors.  I used a couple different light and dark blues and grays.  I put the crayon in the spot where the glue normally goes and taa-daa, you get drips of melted crayon!

Now before I got too close to the tracing of Tony and I, I placed tape that we already had over it so the melted crayon wouldn't run down on it.  Since the umbrella was at weird angles I had to cut the tape in small pieces so it would ONLY cover the parts of the umbrella and not above it.

After taping, I continued melting the crayons with the hot glue gun until I felt like I had most of the canvas covered.  Once it was covered I removed the tape and used the Sharpie Paint for the silhouette of Tony and I.

Once the silhouette was completed the project was finished!! We were very happy with the way it turned out!  I would post the picture of the canvas hanging in the theater room, but we haven't hung a single picture yet...whoops! 

This project in total cost us $20 bucks.  I definitely think we got the biggest bang for our buck on this one.  Plus, it's actually personalized to us and not just a random silhouette of two people.  So now it's your turn to get on out there and be creative!