Melted Crayon Art

Melted crayons on a canvas.  Wow.  Can it get better than this!?  I saw this stunning idea about a year ago.  Since then, I’ve seen the idea everywhere online.

When I decided to do an art birthday party for my daughter, the melted crayon art was the first thing that made it to the project list.  I have been waiting for an opportunity to make my own melted crayon art and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

Melted Crayon Art Tutorial

The first thing you need is a bunch of crayons.  I used one box of Crayola 64 count crayons and 3 of the 24 count boxes. The number of crayons you need will depend on how large your project is.  I liked the 64 count box because it gave me some unique colors like “Macaroni and Cheese.”  I’ve heard that it is important to use the Crayola brand crayons because the other brand’s don’t melt as well.

This is  a perfect time of year to stock up on crayons because it is back-to-school time.  I was about to pick up my pack of 24 crayons for $0.50 and my pack of 64 crayons for about $2.50.

The next thing to do is sort the crayons.  I wanted a rainbow effect so I removed all of the browns, blacks, greys, and whites.

If you are going for a rainbow effect, organize the crayons into sections of similar colors.

Once the colors are in similar sections, I tried to mix the colors up a bit so that some of the unique colors from the box of 64 count crayons are mixed in with some of the standard colors from the box of 24 count crayons.  This gave the colors some interesting transitions.

The next step is to glue the crayons to the top of the canvas using a hot glue gun.  I used two 16×20 and split up the colors accordingly.  When I glued the crayons to the canvas, I positioned the crayon so the name of the color showed at the top.

The next step is to add heat to the crayons.

There are different methods for getting the crayons to melt on the canvas.  A lot of tutorials I’ve read or seen on YouTube use a blow dryer.  Another method is to let it sit out on the sun on a hot day and wait for the crayons to melt.  One other method I’ve heard of is shooting the crayons through a hot glue gun.

I used a cheap heat gun I picked up at Harbor Freight.  Using a heat gun gave me instant heat and the crayons started melting within seconds.  Some of the other tutorials I’ve read said it took over an hour using a blow dryer.  With my heat gun, I was done in minutes.

I loved watching the crayons melt down the canvas and blend together.

Make sure to have something below the canvas to catch the melted crayon drops.

Making the melted crayon art made me feel like a kid again and was a super simple craft.  I used this as the backdrop decor for the cake table at my daughters art birthday party.  Stay tuned and I’ll share how it came together.

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