Craft: Crayon Wax-Melting Art

What mother of preschoolers or other children hasn’t found broken crayons in the couch, under the couch, and all over the floor? You may even have been frustrated to find a crayon in the laundry, way after it’s too late to salvage the clothes in that load. Help your child create crayon wax-melting art to keep from having to throw all the broken crayons away.

Melted wax is dangerous for anyone, especially for children. Please be careful when trying any of the following crayon wax-melting art projects. Adult supervision is definitely a must for melted wax artists.

Here’s how to do it:

In the oven: Set your oven to 250 degrees. Create new crayons by melting the old broken pieces. Break the pieces up into smaller pieces and sort the crayons with like colors. Place the crayon pieces into an old muffin tin. Put the tin into the oven and then turn the oven off. Watch the crayons so they don’t melt entirely. When the crayons have melted sufficiently, remove them from the oven and then place the tin into the freezer for half an hour. Take the tin out and then pop the new, larger crayons out.

Double Boiler: Another way to melt peeled crayons is over a double boiler. Use an old pan that you were going to throw away. Get a larger pot and place water in the pot to boil. Put the old pan into the water so it floats. Put the crayons into the upper pan and allow them to melt. You can then use a ladle or measuring cup to remove small amounts of wax. Dribble or paint the melted wax onto paper or into old candy molds. You can also dribble or pour melted wax on wet sand.

Color on Fabric: On a blank sheet of paper, create a design you’d like to have on a T-shirt or other piece of fabric. Color the design heavily, using plenty of crayon. Set your iron to cool and allow it to heat up. Place newspaper between the layers of fabric so the colors don’t bleed through. Then iron the paper until the design shows through. For best results, use 100% synthetic fabrics.

Sun catchers: Children love the colors that are thrown across the room through sun catchers. You can help your child create a melted crayon wax sun catcher. Give your child a pencil sharpener and let them make crayon shavings. Fold a large sheet of wax paper and sprinkle crayon shavings on half of it. With a warm iron, run the iron over the wax paper quickly. Allow the wax paper to cool and then cut it into various shapes. Make butterflies or flowers with holes in them where you can tape the melted crayon wax sun catcher on the back so the light and colors shine through.

Let the artist come out in your child. However, since you’re working with crayon wax-melting art, be sure to supervise closely to keep your child from injury. The artwork they create will spread colorful light across your room and into your heart.

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Thanksgiving Craft: Placemats and Place Holders

A beautiful table setting is the finishing touch to a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.  By collecting a few simple things from around the house, and maybe a trip to the craft or fabric store, you have the makings of a festive table.  Standard placemats start with a rectangle of construction paper, or fabric, in fall colors or white and come in endless varieties, limited only by your imagination.

Handy Turkey Placemats - Trace around a hand, with fingers spread, to create a turkey. The palm is the body, the thumb is the head, and the other fingers are the tail feathers.  Each child can make their own. It can turn into a game, to try to find their handprint at dinnertime, to see who sits where.

Fall Foliage Placemats - Collect colorful fall leaves from your own yard to make a lovely, natural placemat.  You can also use artificial leaves from the craft store, if you prefer.  Cut two rectangle pieces of contact paper the size you need. Arrange the leaves neatly on the first piece. Carefully place the second piece on top, pealing part of the paper backing off a little at a time, and press in place. Give the placemat a boarder by gluing strips of construction paper about an inch wide along the edges.

Pilgrims and Indians - Draw or find a pattern for simple silhouettes of Pilgrims and Indians. Place one of each on either side of the placemat.  Decorate them, or leave them as simple silhouettes.  Craft feathers could be added for details around the edges.

Burlap Placemats - If you want to go with a more rustic look, cut rectangles of burlap.  If you have a sewing machine, stitch around the outside edge about an inch in, with a zigzag stitch, to keep it from raveling too far. Decorated the placemat with ribbon or yarn.

Fabric Placemats - There are many lovely fall prints available that could be made into placemats.  They could be bordered with a nice ribbon (make sure it’s washable) for a simple placemat. The ribbon could be attached with fabric glue or double stick tape. Just be sure to use the permanent kind, if you want to wash them.  Alternatively, you could make a quilted placemat and finish it off with binding, for a very elegant looking table.

Placeholders or place cards, can also be a nice touch at the dinner table. These help to eliminate the arguments of who sits where at dinner.  They can be made by taking a piece of card stock, or heavy paper, about four inches square, folded in half.  Print the name on both sides. If someone knows how to do calligraphy, that can add a nice touch.  With all the interesting fonts available, it is easy to print out nice ones, and even add small graphics that fit the theme of the season right at your home computer.

Taking the time to create an attractive table adds a bit of color and fun to the festivities that will be enjoyed by everyone.

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Thanksgiving Craft: Indian Headdress

The most colorful and creative Thanksgiving craft you and your kids can engage in is making Indian headdresses.  Whether you prefer one feather, or the full regalia – they are beautiful and fun to wear as well.

Let’s take a look at how to make a few of these headdresses.  Basically, it’s one stop shopping at your local craft store.  Purchase a plain headband; then choose a wide variety of colored feathers, long, short and in-between.  In addition you will need some gold sparkles or stars or any color your kids choose.

Next, have your kids decorate the headbands with the sparkles using glue.  Then take the feathers and one by one, glue each feather to the inside side of the band.  Start with the first row of short feathers, then the next row of medium sized feathers glued to the first, and so on, until the last row contains the longest feathers.  Mix up the colored feathers and place the band around the forehead and Voila! You have a superb looking Indian headdress.

Perhaps one of your children doesn’t want to be the Indian chief, but an Indian girl.  In that case, one feather on a colorful band made by your daughter will be just as attractive.

In addition, there are some Indian headdresses which call for a feather placed from the bottom of the headband to the chin, denoting a specific tribe.  Your kids may want to name their tribe as well by choosing a logo which they can also place on the headband.

Indian headdresses can be as simple or as ornate as you wish.  There is no right or wrong way to make a headdress.  The only requirement is that the kids have fun and you take lots of pictures for your scrapbook or family album.  Oh, and don’t forget to tell the kids they have to make up an Indian dance as well so you can capture it on video to view for years to come.

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