Maia and I made some melted crayon art yesterday, following the stained glass melts project from MaryAnn Kohl's Preschool Art. I swear we'd be set for life with just the projects in her books. There are so many good ones!
These stained glass melts were fun to make and the result is beautiful! I love how the light shines through, especially with the lighter colors.
(Note: The butterfly above was a joint effort between Maia and me. She asked me to draw the butterfly outline and also wanted me to work with her on the color so I added some of the yellow. As a rule, I don't draw on Maia's art, or draw something for her, but she said she wanted to make a butterfly together and I was up for trying a collaboration.)
Here's how we made the melted crayon art:
First Maia drew a picture on paper with a black pen. Then I placed the drawing on a cookie sheet in a warm oven (250 degrees F.). The book says to use a warming tray, but we don't have one, and we had used the cookie sheet method with success before. Maia carefully colored in her drawing with crayons while the paper and cookie sheet were hot. The crayon melts beautifully!
After filling in the drawing with melted crayon, Maia did a black watercolor wash over the drawing. This isn't part of the project in MaryAnn's book, but seemed like a good way to make the stained glass pop out even more. We used lightweight paper rather than watercolor paper, since we weren't planning on using watercolors. But also I think the stained glass effect is more effective with lighter weight paper.
We hung our melted crayon art in the window and I love how they turned out!
This picture (since I'm sure you're wondering) is of a mama hen with billions of eggs inside her.
