Melty Crayon Pointillism

So, one of my favorite things on the planet is to melt crayons onto canvas. I know it sounds childish, but it turns out a product that is more artistic than you would ever expect it to be. I've done several of these now, and I'm still perfecting them. When I get time to find the photos, I'll post the Chi Omega one that I gave to my last roommate. For now, I'm going to show you one of the more unique ones I have done, which included the use of pointillism.

I started out by drawing out the letters that I wanted to stay "clean", as it were, of crayon. I did my sorority's letters since it was to become a gift for someone else's little. I made it monogram style, with the letters in the correct order but the middle letter bigger than the other two. Use a pencil to sketch this out, and do it VERY LIGHTLY. You can't erase efficiently off of a canvas, it will leave a smear. To cover up my pencil marks I later traced over it with orange marker. If you want it to be completely white underneath, tape it off with masking tape. I suggest using this since you can peel it off and move around your design to make sure you like what you get.

Next, I picked out the colors that I wanted to use. I chose two shades of purple and two shades of green. For this particular crayon melt, you do want variety in your shades so that you can actually see the end design. After you pick your colors, you must peel the crayons! You're going to be sticking them into open flame, and that wrapper on fire is not something you want to deal with.

Before you start melting, get an idea of the pattern you want to put on the canvas. Sketch it out if you need to. I picked a bunch of intersecting spirals of different shades. How I picked that particular one, I'm not sure, but it was probably a mental conglomeration of sixty different Pinterest projects.

Now it's time for the fiery goodness. Light yourself a candle that you don't particularly care for (the crayon drips will probably get on it and make it ugly). Now, this takes practice. Hold the crayon right above or beside the flame until a drop forms on the tip or it is running into a drop. This doesn't take very long at all, and the first few times you'll probably just drip it right into the flame. Once you get the hang of it, it'll be pretty simple from that point onward. Just take the crayon and drop, put it over the canvas in the spot you want it, and gently touch the canvas with it. It should form a nice roundy drop on the canvas when you pull the crayon away. Repeat, repeat, repeat until the pattern is finished. Yes, it is tedious, but it looks great in the end and makes a fantastic gift for anyone. Here's a picture of my final product!