Children's Crafts with Crayons

I found this cool post at the blog Crafty Daisies. The project isn't necessarily original (I remember making a similar project in elementary school, over 20 years ago), but I thought Candace's photos were pretty awesome (her photo is here).

There was a similar post at the blog Little Alya's Babbles, where I liked the use of the cupcake liners.

Whether you call them Rainbow Crayons, Crayon Cookies or Crayon Nibbles, the project is pretty cool - especially for smaller fingers that have an easier time with chunky crayons.

This past week my daughter turned 7. She is the youngest of my two. While my 10 year old son used duct tape to create a calculator-pop-can-robot, my daughter opened a big Crayola creativity kit that she got from her grandparents.

You guessed it - I went right for the crayons! We spent a good chunk of time coloring pictures, and it was not only fun, but it was relaxing - a nice break from my stressful day of nursery duty at church followed by having a birthday party for 6 and 7 year olds at a noisy and chaotic family fun place.

When it was time for my daughter to go to bed, I reached into my purse for my lip balm, and discovered that she had cut out one of her pictures and placed it in my purse for me.

I tell you - color crayons rock!

I remember doing this simple project as a child, and it is a fun way to spend a rainy day indoors. This craft is from the blog, Parenting Times (as is the photo).

As you can imagine, the first step is to color a simple drawing on a piece of paper. Press hard with the crayon.

Then, use watercolor paints to paint a wash of several colors over the entire paper, painting over the crayon, and then let dry!

I found this blog post about a crayon Valentine's Day craft, but it can be made any time of the year. Who doesn't love hearts in August?

The gist of the project is to make crayon shavings in a desired color or colors using either a cheese grater or a crayon sharpener, then sandwich the shavings between two pieces of wax paper, then between newspaper sheets to protect the iron. On a low setting, use the iron to just melt the shavings.

Cut out 2 matching frames out of construction paper, then cut the wax paper to fit inside the frame. Glue the frames to each side of the wax paper. Punch a hole in the top and then tie a string for hanging.