Crayon Valentine Heart

Yesterday, my daughters and I spent the afternoon making Valentine crafts.

We had one TOTAL FAIL – Martha we are not!

But, we did come out with some fun stuff as well!

This is the first one I wanted to share with you…

We have all seen the melted crayon canvases all over Pinterest, but we decided to try and make a shape with it.

We started here.

A blank square canvas, I used a template to pencil draw a heart.

I probably should have used painters tape, but that was in the garage and it was really cold out.

So, we used masking tape.

We spent some time laying out the crayons first, figuring out how to fit them it the heart, before gluing them.

I used garden snips to easily cut the crayons down.

My template was a rounded heart, but I had to cut some of the roundness off and just go straight with the crayon.  Then, I adjusted the tape to match the new edge.

Then we attached them with hot glue.  I was skeptical if the glue would loosen with the heat, but it did not.

Please pardon the shaky photos, we were working in the basement and it can be hard to get enough light.

The Pinterest projects I had scene used a hair dryer. In hindsight, I probably should have read some of them for tips to make things easier.  I used a heat gun, with the canvas slanted and a paper bag at the base to collect the excess.  As it melted, I adjusted the angle up and down to control the speed and direction of the melting wax slightly.

I didn’t take us long to figure out that the crayon had run under the tape.  For the record, we did another similar project where we did use painters tape and the same thing happened.  I think the heat loosened the hold of the tape.

If I were to do it again, I would paint the canvas all over in a color, even possible white, then once the tape was on, paint over that seam.  This would seal the tape and keep the crayon out.

Once out of the basement, the photographs show the color much better.  I actually kind of like the way the crayon did not stay “in the lines”.

It was really quite beautiful to watch the color run.

Obviously, we stayed with Valentine colors, using white, pinks and red.  But this could really be applied to any shape, even a letter possibly, with any collection of colors.

Hmm, I really like the idea of doing a letter.

The best part of the project is that we had all of the supplies already on hand so it was no initial investment.  It is now part of our “Valentine Vignette” that I will share with you soon.

I will be sharing at The Nest of Posies

and at Tatertots and Jello,  Home Stories A to Z and Whipperberry.

And at Decor Chick’s Valentine Party

As always, thanks for reading!