crayola art

So I fibbed. Here's another Pinterest-inspired craft for the day ... the Crayola art that everyone seems to love.

Let me say that it's a little trickier than I expected it to be. It's a two-person job. One to manage the heat gun (or blow dryer) and another to manipulate the canvas if the colors start going where you don't want them to go ... or if the colors just flat out don't go anywhere cool.

I bought two boxes of 24 Crayola crayons and two 8x8 canvases - one for each of my children - plus grabbed a handful of good-shape crayons we already had to mix it up a bit. The canvas on the left is for my son and the crayons are roughly in color order (or at least pleasing to my eye). The one on the right is my daughter's. She arranged the colors and suggested they run to the middle (it's a tree, don'tcha see?). He is four and she is nine. He doesn't care and she does (i.e. Mommy has creative control on the little guy but not so much with the big girl).

Tips:
1. Two people, as said before.
2. Melt from the top of the crayon, not the bottom (if you melt from the bottom, you blow the colors all over the place).
3. Use the end of a pencil to depress the canvas and encourage pooling in various spots.
4. We used a heat gun because my husband is on a power trip. A hairdryer might be a better tool because it won't heat the crayons as fast and you don't risk burning yourself as bad.
5. Work slowly. Turn the gun or dryer off every so often and let the wax cool and pool (I should trademark that!).

If I could do them over (or when I do them over), I'd go ahead with the bigger canvas and I'd be sure to go heavier with the green on my son's canvas. I would also insist that my daughter choose some brighter colors and omit the brown and black. She had a cool idea, actually ... but we had already started her canvas ... She suggested a line of pink and green alternating (maybe blocks of three at a time?) as an homage to Sweet Frog. That would be totally awesome. Maybe we'll end up with our own Crayola art gallery.

Other ideas for Crayola art:
1. Camouflage?
2. School colors (I'd opt for "old gold and blue" for my alma mater.)
3. Christmas red and green
4. Mix in several whites and get pastel effects in the pooling.
5. Pick one solid and go for it. I can see needing a punch of red in a room and this would be a neat way to accomplish it.
6. What if you leaned the canvas diagonally and all the wax ran to a lower corner instead of vertically?
7. Can you tape sections to create a shape in the middle that the wax runs around?

Hmm ...

If you have any tips or have created Crayola art canvases before, leave and comment and let's share ideas!

of pinterest interest

So after pouring over the wonderful craft finds that are to be had on Pinterest (thanks, Pinners!), I got crafty today.

{Honestly, I had this fear wash over me (okay, not real fear, but I was a little shaken and disturbed) that I was accumulating all of these fantastic, simple craft ideas and not acting on them. In the way that I've decided to use Pinterest, the goal is to find and create, not collect.}

From my For the Home board and re-pinned from Kristen R, is my rendition of the "tree of love" ...

My four-year-old son has already requested that we add grandparents! The two twigs are steadied with floral foam and I filled in around them with little red foam balls I found at the Dollar Tree. They're labeled "decorative container filler," and will surely last longer than red hots or red jelly beans. The little wooden signs had been stashed away in my "wood pile" in the craft cabinet. I have some small hearts, too, that I may paint and add to the tree. I can see this staying out all the time, not just for Valentine's Day. After all, family love isn't seasonal.

Today's second craft was inspired by Lindsey St. Louis's twig luminaries that I pinned to my DIY Gift Ideas board. While I still may make those luminaries, I went in a slightly different direction today.

I bought a small pillar-sized candle jar (not the votive size) at the Dollar Tree, wrapped twine around it and then wove the twigs through the twine. No glue or mess. I probably would have woven more twigs in, but the twine became too tight to manage such a task. And mama, I know you're reading ... this is one of your birthday gifts. :) Act surprised next month, okay?

I have one final twig craft for the day, but it's not finished. Stay tuned ...

he grew up in a weeks' time

My little guy started pre-school last week. I thought I'd be a little upset, but strangely, I was very cool with it. For whatever reason, I sort of mourned his ripe age of four a few weeks ago when his big sister started fourth grade. I was already lamenting the start of kindergarten 2012 a whole year prematurely. That sadness made me see very clearly that if left in his current daytime environment, he would not be ready to start school.

I prayed, begged, and put out as many feelers as I could to find a pre-school, or at least someone who would work with him on the basics. An answer came quickly, much to my amazement and delight, and he is now in week two of a stimulating, encouraging environment. My husband and I saw immediate changes in him:

• He's calm.
• He has an interest in sitting down to draw, write, and color.
• He has always been inquisitive, but his questions are becoming more mature and thoughtful.
• His attention span seems longer as it appears he has learned how to focus, somehow.
• He now has patience that he didn't have before.

How can all of this be? I can only say that God's hand is in it. From the circumstances of who his teacher is and a history our daughter's share, to the Christian learning environment I longed and prayed for, to the refinement of my son's behavior, that's the only explanation there is. It was time, and the Lord provided.

So now for something super cute. My little guy is sitting here with me, coloring away. Abruptly, he stopped coloring and I could feel him looking at me. I looked up and he said, "if you eat too much, you get a baby in your belly." I stifled a laugh and asked who told him that (assuming it was something crazy his big sister passed along), and he said it was the four-year-old girl he's attending pre-school with. Those two must be having some deep conversations!

With a Joyful Heart,