Crayon Wax-Melting Art

By Crafter
18
Feb
2010

Welcome back!

What mother of preschoolers or other children hasn’t found broken crayons in the couch, under the couch, and all over the floor? You may even have been frustrated to find a crayon in the laundry, way after it’s too late to salvage the clothes in that load. Help your child create crayon wax-melting art to keep from having to throw all the broken crayons away.

Melted wax is dangerous for anyone, especially for children. Please be careful when trying any of the following crayon wax-melting art projects. Adult supervision is definitely a must for melted wax artists. Here’s how to do it:

In the oven: Set your oven to 250 degrees. Create new crayons by melting the old broken pieces. Break the pieces up into smaller pieces and sort the crayons with like colors. Place the crayon pieces into an old muffin tin. Put the tin into the oven and then turn the oven off. Watch the crayons so they don’t melt entirely. When the crayons have melted sufficiently, remove them from the oven and then place the tin into the freezer for half an hour. Take the tin out and then pop the new, larger crayons out.

Double Boiler: Another way to melt peeled crayons is over a double boiler. Use an old pan that you were going to throw away. Get a larger pot and place water in the pot to boil. Put the old pan into the water so it floats. Put the crayons into the upper pan and allow them to melt. You can then use a ladle or measuring cup to remove small amounts of wax. Dribble or paint the melted wax onto paper or into old candy molds. You can also dribble or pour melted wax on wet sand.

Color on Fabric: On a blank sheet of paper, create a design you’d like to have on a T-shirt or other piece of fabric. Color the design heavily, using plenty of crayon. Set your iron to cool and allow it to heat up. Place newspaper between the layers of fabric so the colors don’t bleed through. Then iron the paper until the design shows through. For best results, use 100% synthetic fabrics.

Sun catchers: Children love the colors that are thrown across the room through sun catchers. You can help your child create a melted crayon wax sun catcher. Give your child a pencil sharpener and let them make crayon shavings. Fold a large sheet of wax paper and sprinkle crayon shavings on half of it. With a warm iron, run the iron over the wax paper quickly. Allow the wax paper to cool and then cut it into various shapes. Make butterflies or flowers with holes in them where you can tape the melted crayon wax sun catcher on the back so the light and colors shine through.

Let the artist come out in your child. However, since you’re working with crayon wax-melting art, be sure to supervise closely to keep your child from injury. The artwork they create will spread colorful light across your room and into your heart.

Category: Kids Crafts  One Comment

Scrapper’s Block?

By Crafter
19
Jan
2010

At some point in every die-hard scrapper’s life, they’ll probably have to deal with scrapper’s block. You know what that is, don’t you? Try as you may, you just can’t think of a single clever word or idea for another scrapbook page. Here are some tips and ideas to help you overcome this bane to your scrapbooking existence.

If journaling is your problem, there are a number of things you can do to get over the blockage.

1. Get up from your chair and take a walk. That’s right. You need a fresh perspective. Go outside and enjoy the great outdoors. Breathe in the clean air and feel the sunshine on your face.

2. Start collecting sayings that are meaningful to you – witty phrases from commercials, cute things that your children say, quotes from famous and not-so-famous people. Keep them in a notebook for those times you need some inspiration.

3. Create a journal jar. This is really good for writers who get stuck. Find a nice looking jar and write down sentences that will get you thinking. Cut the sentences off the page and put them in the jar. The next time you have scrapper’s block, you can draw one out and see where it takes you. Here are a few to get your jar started:

* Explain a family tradition from when you were a child.
* Who do you most admire and why?
* What is your dream vacation?
* Which holiday is your favorite?

What if the problem isn’t journaling, but trying to come up with actual pages for your scrapbook to go along with the photos you have? Maybe it will help to know you’re not alone. Even professional scrapbookers have this problem from time to time.

1. It’s okay to “break the rules” in scrapbooking. You may feel you have to work with the most recent pictures you have, but it’s alright to go through them until you find some that you’d rather work with.

2. If you can’t actually make yourself work on a page, perhaps you can plan out pages you’d like to do but may not have the photos or supplies for. Think about how you could get photos to match those ideas.

3. Look through magazines or online to get inspiration. Perhaps you’ll see something that would be perfect with some of your photos.

4. Go back through your completed pages and realize that you’re really good at scrapbooking. There may be a layout in there that can be adapted or updated with some of the new supplies that are out.

Here are some ideas that you may be able to use to help get you past scrapper’s block:

* My first helium balloon
* Playing with my friends
* Taking a bubble bath
* First tooth lost
* Dirty faces
* First day of . . . school, camp, spending the night with Grandma . . .
* All dressed up and no place to go
* Splashing in puddles
* First haircut (be sure to save a lock of hair to include)
* Family reunions

There are endless possibilities when you’re creating scrapbook pages. Take some time away from your pages to give you a fresh perspective. Look through others’ pages, magazines, or your child’s baby book to get inspiration. When scrapper’s block has passed, you’ll have so many new great ideas you won’t be able to get to them quick enough!

Category: Scrapbooking  Leave a Comment

Are You Having a Scrap Attack?

By Crafter
16
Jan
2010

If you’re just beginning to take notice of scrapbooking, be prepared for a shock! Scrapbooking is so popular and there are so many supplies all over the place – in crafts stores, in discount stores, and online – that it’s easy to become overwhelmed. When you see everything available, are you having a scrap attack?

Look down the aisles at a crafts store and you’ll see shelves filled with scrapbooking goodies. Papers galore, stickers to die for, craft scissors with various edges, and oh, the books themselves are something to drool over. It’s no wonder people get easily overwhelmed. And that’s not even the beginning of what’s available.

Taking a look online, you’ll find millions of websites that have information about scrapbooking as a hobby. Some have various scrapbook page templates, or page examples, and tips of the trade for creating the perfect scrapbook. Others give step-by-step instructions of how to create pages.

While it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the vast amount of scrapbooking supplies available, take a deep breath and get ready to find what you’re looking for. To begin with, you’ll need to have photographs that you’ll place into your scrapbook. Organize them into what you’d like to include in one book, then you’ll be better able to go out and find the supplies you want.

Be sure that no matter what supplies you purchase, they are acid and lignin free so your precious photographs and memories will be protected. Choose which pages you would like to keep together on one page and then look for things they have in common besides the subject matter.

For instance, if you have pictures of your first child having their first bubble bath, you may want to find paper that has a bathroom design on it. Or you could choose stickers that resemble bubbles or rubber ducks. Be sure to choose some pens for writing on your pages or use stickers with fun sayings.

As you can tell, your scrapbooks don’t have to be elaborate. There’s no need to go out and buy one of everything on the scrapbooking aisle, although you could if your pocket book wouldn’t suffer too much and your spouse didn’t complain about the money you’d spent.

Pick up a few items that you know you’ll use right away. If you plan out your pages ahead of time, you’ll have an idea of what supplies you’ll need.

Category: Scrapbooking  Leave a Comment

Scrapbooking Starts This New Year

By Crafter
31
Dec
2009

People all over the world enjoy scrapbooking as a hobby. You may already be into scrapbooking, or maybe not yet. Each day someone new begins their first scrapbook. If you’re interested in trying this popular pastime, scrapbooking starts this new year when you plan ahead to make your first scrapbook project.

Scrapbooks are a better place to store pictures and mementos rather than keeping them in boxes where they could get lost or damaged. Scrapbooks are also an easier way for people to enjoy the photos they contain. What better way is there to showcase your memories than with pictures and journal spaces to bring those memories back to mind?

Having a New Year’s Eve party is a great time to start a chronological scrapbook for the coming year. You’ve made your list of guests, sent out invitations, have the menu planned, and even have party games planned. Why not have several disposable cameras sitting around the party so your guests can take candid shots while the party is going on. A digital camera would also be a good idea to have available.

How do you plan for a great New Year’s themed scrapbook if you’ve never completed one before? Obviously, for scrapbooking you will need a scrapbook, pictures, and paper to put them on, as well as scissors, photo corners or glue, embellishments, stickers, pens for journaling, and sheet protectors.

As soon as you can after New Year’s Eve, plan on having the film developed or printed if the camera is digital. Gather your materials and plan on spending some time to get each page to look just as you’d like it.

Choose five or six great pictures from the party rather than trying to work on all of your photos at once. You want to enjoy the process, the memories, and the fun of scrapbooking so you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. Take your time and play with the photos and the layout to find what works best.

Think of a title for each of your pages. “Happy New Year!” is an obvious choice, but you might want something more creative like “Waiting for the ball to drop” or “Auld Lang Syne”. Look at the photographs and decide what title works best with them.

Don’t be afraid to crop your photos to focus on one person or a group of people. If you use scissors to cut the photos, you may want to put photo frames over them to hide the edges. Add boxes to journal the names of the people in the photos or other information you want to remember about the photo.

Scrapbooking continues to grow in popularity and the number of supplies you can find for it is mind-boggling. Take some time to look through the craft stores to find items that will enhance your photos and give your first scrapbook project of the New Year your sense of creativity.

Category: Holiday Crafts  Leave a Comment

Make a Time Capsule for New Year’s Eve

By Crafter
29
Dec
2009

There are events in every person’s life that they want to commemorate, whether it’s the birth of a child, moving into their first home, or their child’s first day of school. You may want to build a time capsule each New Year’s Eve so you can remember the previous year for years to come.

What is a time capsule and why would anyone make one, especially on New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Eve is automatically a time when we think about the future and the past, so putting together a time capsule seems like a great activity at this time of year. Basically a time capsule is a container that can be used to store items that will bring back memories when it is opened at a later date. You may want to include things to help you remember specific events of this year, people that are important to you, and predictions about the future.

If you’re having a New Year’s Eve party, you may want to ask your guests to each bring an item to include in the time capsule. Have them put a sticker or something on the item to identify who put the items in and why this item was important. Decide when you’re going to open the time capsule and write a note not to be opened before that date.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own time capsule this New Year’s Eve:

* Coffee can or large jar with a lid, a plastic box with a lid
* Any items you may want to include that show what’s going on today
* Paint, stickers, or other items to decorate your time capsule

If you plan to actually bury your time capsule, you may want to paint it rather than cover it with some type of paper. You may want to paint it with a grandfather clock, fireworks, or “Do not open until 2025” (or whatever year you decide).

After you’ve decorated the outside, it’s time to start filling the inside. Include items that are common today. Some coins, postage stamps, a grocery receipt, mall toys from popular television shows or movies, an extra copy of a music CD, a message for people in the future, or a newspaper for the date the time capsule will be buried. Don’t put in food because it could possibly draw bugs or animals, and it won’t be good in the future.

You get the idea. Put anything into the time capsule that will give someone opening it in the future an idea of what life was like when the capsule was buried. Be sure to include a picture of everyone who shared something so people can see what you looked like and how people dressed at the time.

Glue the lid on the container to keep the elements, bugs, and animals out of it. You can bury it in your yard, place it in the basement or attic so it’s out of mind, or find some other place to store it. Making a time capsule for the New Year is a great way to help you remember the year that just passed and have something to look forward to in the future.

Category: Holiday Crafts  One Comment
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