Crayon art! Turning crayons into a scene from "The Lorax"

Recently I joined Pinterest. I knew it would be a big mistake, and it has been. But, a very good one! I worried I would spend too many hours on Pinterest, but that is not exactly what has happened. I spend a few minutes a day on Pinterest, and hours on the projects I am inspired to do. Overall, that's not a bad thing! Except on days like today when I really need to be cleaning, or cooking, or something. Surely there is something else I should be doing, right?

The latest craze on Pinterest is melted crayon rainbow art. I'm sure you've seen it, but in case you haven't, it looks like this:

Very cool idea! Very colorful, and simple execution. Plus, who doesn't like melting crayons? It is fun, and you can get kids involved in the creation of art to hang around your house.

I love it, but I wanted to do something different. I googled "melted crayon dot art" because I had an idea in my head. And I found someone else who had tried it! This blog has a great photo tutorial for making your own dot art (or crayon pointillism if you want to sound super knowledgable and artistic):

Helping Little Hands - Crayon Art Tutorial

My husband and I have recently started working to turn a strange little space at the top of our stairs into an art area for the kids. I decided I wanted the space to feel like a scene right out of my oldest's favorite book "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. So...here's what happened.

I went to Hobby Lobby and got a 2-pack of 11x15 canvases for only $5.99. Then I located the tremendously enormous box of crayons that no one uses anymore. Many are broken, misshapen, etc. But that doesn't matter for this. Keep in mind that you will need a LOT of certain colors if your picture has large spaces that are all the same color.  Then I chose a two-page spread from "The Lorax."

I decided to leave off the text, the Once-ler and his wagon, and the swans. I might add them somewhere else in the art nook a bit later.

Then I took a pencil and lightly sketched the main elements of the pages

Then it was time to start melting! I melted my crayons over burning candles. Be very careful if kids are going to be around while you do this. I would not recommend trying this with young children who want to help you. Each color melts at a different rate. Be careful because some colors burn if held too close to the flame. It was helpful for me to have a sheet of paper towel on hand in case I need to wipe burned wax off of my crayon.

By accident I made the sky too dark. Some colors melt a lot darker than you might think. But, I ended up making a two-tone sky, and it added a lot of depth. Here's the original sky color.

A close up of the texture on one of the canvases.

I don't consider myself an artist at all. My drawing skills are very limited. But crayon art is perfect for me! It is very imperfect by nature. All you need to be able to do is draw a basic picture, and then stamp the crayon into the right spot on your canvas. Very time consuming, but deeply gratifying.

Here's the finished diptych.

The art space is definitely not finished yet, but here's what my pictures look like on the wall.

If you decide to try this project for yourself, I'd love to see what you come up with!

Crochet Wristwarmers

Most of what I post on my blog has to do with gluten-free cooking and baking. Occasionally I've shared some of my writing. Today I'd like to share something I recently crocheted.

She looks like such a big girl reading her magazine (an Oriental Trading catalog - haha!) while wearing these little purple wristwarmers.

I was pretty pleased with myself that I whipped this pair out with no pattern. Hard to believe just a couple of years ago I was afraid to make hats!

Mystery crocheting

A few months ago, a friend of mine had a baby. I wanted to make a crochet blanket animal, so I followed a wash cloth pattern and intended to stitch the finished product on to the bottom of a stuffed animal I had already created. After I finished the wash cloth, I decided the animal was cuter without having a blanket attached to it. That left me with a purple hexagon and no idea what to do with it.

It was big enough that I didn't want to toss it. One of my least favorite things to do when crocheting is tearing out work I started. So, that didn't seem like an option either. I decided I liked the hexagon shape, so I just started building on to it. I had no idea what it was going to become. I love projects like that!

If you've been watching the news at all, you know that the midwest is experiencing an extreme heat wave. I'm talking heat indices of close to 120 degrees every day this week. Add to that the fact that my youngest child turned on the heat on our thermostat (which, of course, we didn't know she had done!), and that led to it being about 87 degrees in our bedroom. We decided that was far too hot for sleeping in. My lovely husband inflated an air mattress for the kids, and we headed to the spare room.

I sat down to crochet a little before bed. I had two purple and orange hexagons to work with. What could they become? That's when I decided I should make an enormous, hexagon-shape pillow. What family is complete without that? The finished product is 25 inches x 22 inches. And so, here it is: