"Kids, Look At These Crayons.." - Pinterest Winter Challenge

When I saw on Young House Love that they were doing another Pinterest Challenge I was ecstatic.  I have been wanting to do something with the crayon project I saw from one of the past challenges and just never got to it.  This was the motivation I needed.


                                                

                                                                                                  (Image from Katie Bower from Bower Power)

My project inspiration came from Unsimple Living.  She originally saw this picture from Etsy to get her inspiration:

                                                                    (Image from Etsy)


The original idea was to use broken crayons that we received at the end of the school year, but being that school isn't out yet, we decided to use whole crayons.  I have always wanted to do more crafts with our three sons, but whenever I even mention the words "craft" or "project" they run off screaming in terror.  After completing this project, I can see why.  I am a hot mess when it comes to pulling a craft together. 


Tuesday I ran to Michaels to get stuff for this craft.  I knew I needed two canvas boards, a hot glue gun and hot glue sticks.  I found a deal on the canvas boards (12 x 12) and ran and grabbed the cheapest mini hot glue gun and hot glue sticks I could find.  I then ran to Walmart and got crayons.   

Logan decided he wanted to keep the wrappers on his crayons and Keenan wanted to take them off.  It took me forever to find out an easy method for taking the wrappers off.  It took me a good five minutes to get the first wrapper off.  By the end of it, I was ripping them off in 30 seconds. 

I had the boys arrange the crayons on their boards and then went to glue them on.  When I went to plug in the hot glue gun and insert the glue stick, I realized I got standard sized glue sticks for my mini hot glue gun.  It started to look like this was going to become a two day project and then I called my mom.  She saved the day and brought over another hot glue gun and glue sticks.  Then it was time to glue them on.

The crayons with the wrappers glued on without any issues.  The ones without the wrappers started to melt immediately and I had to glue a couple of them on twice before they would stick to the canvas. 


This is what they looked like before we broke out the hair dryer:

Logan helped me for all of two seconds before he got bored holding the hair dryer.  Admittedly, I got bored too and cranked the hairdryer up to high speed instead of low.  Instead of getting the crayons to drip, this ended up making the wax splatter everywhere.  I liked it.  But the artist did not.  After Logan saw his masterpiece, he burst into tears.  Apparently, I had assaulted his picture with the hair dryer and he was pissed.  He said he liked it better before.  Luckily, this kid bounces back quickly and within 5 minutes he was okay with it. 

If you look closely at the scribbles you will see it is actually his name!

I then did Keenan's.  I went with the high speed for Keenan's picture as well because he said he liked the splatter effect.  But, because his crayons did not have the wrappers, they slipped right off the canvas.  We ended up deciding to just let them off slip off and decide how he liked it.  He didn't.  And neither did I. 

So.....our project turned into a two day project after all.


Wednesday, it was back to Michaels.  I got another canvas and went to get mini hot glue sticks.  All they had left were the glitter sticks and because I didn't feel like making another trip to another store, I bought them. 

The second time went much smoother and Keenan LOVED how it turned out. 

So....despite a few hiccups, we got two pieces of artwork to hang on their bedroom door.  And hopefully, I'll be a little more prepared now for the next challenge

Be sure to check out the fabulous projects done by the hosts:  Sherry, Katie, Erin, and Cassie.  These girls are amazing.  One day I'll pull off projects half as cool as these!

"Lellow"

The other night my husband, Matt, was playing on the floor with Riley when he held up a yellow ball and asked Riley what color it was.  Riley replied, "Lellow."  Matt and I stared at each other in disbelieve.  Clearly, we were raising a genius!  And then the disbelieve faded away as the following unfolded.

Matt:  Points to a blue object, "What color is this?"
Riley:  "Lellow."
Matt:  Points to a red object, "What color is this?
Riley:  "Lellow."
Matt:  Points to a green object, "What color is this?"
Riley:  "Lellow." 

So, maybe not a genius yet, but this mama is impressed that he even recognizes yellow as a color at this young age.  The rest will come soon enough!