How To Melt Crayons On Canvas

These smaller canvases are the same brand that we used in our large collaborative art projects.

Recommended Supplies

• Canvases or canvas panels
• Old crayons with the wrappers peeled off
• Elmer’s Glue-All
• Acrylic paint in a variety of colors

Can you leave the crayon wrappers on?

Yes, we have seen a variety of melted crayon canvases where they decide to keep the wrappers on. I would recommend making sure you glue where the seam of the crayon paper is. This will make sure the paper doesn’t just fall off.

How To Make A Melted Crayon Art Project With Children

Step 1: Plan Out Your Design

• Together decide what images you want to use. Brainstorm your ideas and sketch them on to the canvas with a pencil.
• Come up with a collective color scheme. Since it was close to Valentine’s Day, we painted a simple heart and used a variety of red, pink, purple and blue crayons.
• Draw an image or images large, but still leave space for where the crayons will be glued.
• If you are doing a single, smaller canvas, this drawing technique may help you or your children plan out their first sketch on the canvas or canvas board.

Step 2: Paint Canvas Before Adding Crayons

This step is optional. You can still melt crayons on a canvas without painting the canvas. You do not need to paint if you want a white background and only want the crayons to make the design.

• Paint with neutral acrylic paint for the background or something that will contrast with the crayon colors you are choosing to melt. In this small example, we actually just left the small gallery-wrapped canvas white.
• Paint the image on the inside. Children can also use colored and black sharpies to make the painting appear neater.
• You can use gold and silver paint markers to add extra details and designs on top of dry paint. Paint markers help cover up mistakes and keep things looking neat. This is very important when doing group projects with several kids of all different abilities. 

Step 3: Glue on the Crayons

After the painting is done, begin to glue crayons around the middle image. The canvas should be left flat when using glue.

Make sure that you are placing colors that will mix next to each other. If you want to use all the colors, put them in the order of the rainbow for a really fun effect.

Step 4: Let Dry

Find a flat drying space after you have glued the crayons onto your DIY art project.

Step 5: Melt Crayons With a Blow Dryer

Before beginning, set up a workstation. I suggest that you make sure to have a drop cloth or newspaper down because once the crayons start melting off the canvas it can get quite messy!

As you see in our picture while we were making our own melted crayon heart art, we just use an old piece of cardboard to protect our table.

Once the glue has dried, you get to start to have fun with the blow dryer.

Tilt the canvas to almost completely vertical and with the crayons you want to melt pointing down. Hold the edge of the canvas and slowly rotate it to melt new crayons. You want to hold the heat source pointed at the tips of the crayons.

How to dry melted wax?

We rested our canvas on small plastic cups so that the wax wouldn’t stick. You can also place your artwork on a piece of wax paper while it is drying.