Crayon Art - Rainbow Heart and Birds

Just a short post for now while I work on another project. This is something I did a while ago for some cheap colorful and fun wall decor to brighten up my room. I got three boxes of these crayola crayons because I was planning on more crayon art. A bit of PVA glued them to a canvas in a heart shape, getting the shape right was probably the hardest part and laying out the crayons before gluing them is pretty much a must. To keep the inside of the heart white I used a bit of paper cut into the heart shape and some blu-tack as a barrier to block melted wax.

Once the crayons were glued it was pretty much just a matter of applying the heat. I borrowed a hairdryer and a spare pair of hands from my boyfriend and set to work. It took a bit of experimenting but we found that the best way was to tilt the canvas and focus on melting a small section of the heart at a time. It is best not to angle the hairdryer along the crayons as this can cause small drops of way to fly off the crayon ends instead of running smoothly, although this effect can be used to advantage as well. A small stick can be used to draw the wax into a line and encourage separate tracks to form along with using the air flow from the dryer to push the melted wax along the desired direction. Also note this is best done somewhere with plenty of mess protection as wax can get everywhere.

And this is the finished result. So bright and cheerful!

But I couldn't stop there. After a heart I had to see what else I could make. I have a bit of a thing for birds so came up with these.

I peeled the wrappers off some of my leftover crayons and used the trusty pocket knife to cut them down to more manageable sizes for the smaller canvasses and then to cut them in half lengthwise. I sharpened the ends as well just to help the crayon flow more smoothly as it melted. I also saved the shavings, more about that later. These crayon fragments were glued along the base of the wings and tail. It is worth noting that the wax will spread a lot so the crayon fragments don't need to be very long. I think the longest one was less than half the original crayon length. More blu-tack and, this time, insulation tape was used to mask the areas where I did not want wax. some wax managed to seep underneath the insulation tape, this was just carefully scraped off and painted white but in future I would use a blu-tack barrier around the entire shape.

Using the blade of the pocket knife to gently start tracks as before and applying heat at the low setting finished the wings and tails. For the bodies I wanted a mottled feather effect, remember those shavings I saved? I sprinkled those into the body and head of the birds (making sure there were no oversize chunks) and melted them. The first attempt was the red bird, I used the hairdryer to blow directly on the shavings and they just melted and ran together except for a few chunks of yellow which took longer to melt.

For the blue-green bird I decided to try a different approach and hold the canvas up high and level and use the hairdrier to heat the canvas beneath the shavings.I also made doubly sure the shavings were very fine. This took a surprisingly short time to melt and didn't disrupt the already formed wings and tail. I am really pleased with the result.

As I mentioned there was quite a bit of wax seeping away from the borders but a little white paint and a couple more layers of white paint and it is barely noticeable. I also used a orange pen to mark in a small beak for the blue bird. One now hangs on my wall and the other went to the boyfriend for all his help and design input. They seem to remind me of fire and water respectively... maybe a light blue/white and a brown/yellow one should follow.

Just for interests sake, the heart is on a 40x50cm canvas, and the birds are both on 15x15cm canvasses.

Mini Cardboard Drawers

Hmm looks like I chose the wrong time to start a blog... next time I will wait until AFTER the 50% electronics assignment is due. But back on track now, and here *cue drumroll* is my first project.

I needed something to tidy up the mess inside my sewing box, solution - mini drawers. Cheap solution, fabric covered cardboard mini drawers! Basically it consists of four cardboard boxes like this:

They make awesome storage for all my thread (for the moment - actually I will need to up-size soon), and could be used to store any small items, from sewing notions (buttons, zips, ribbon scraps etc), to paperclips and similar stationary or even jewellery.

I started by making the three drawers, I used corrugated cardboard which was fairly stiff and not too thick, I wanted them to feel reasonably sturdy. An abandoned shoebox and another box which once held canned drinks were sacrificed for the cause. Here's the pattern I sketched out, any dimensions should do, but the important thing to add 0.5cm to the width and depth, and 1cm to the total height of all the drawers for the larger container box so that they fit snugly inside.

After making the small drawers I covered them in some fabric that I managed to score from my Nana last time she was cleaning up her cupboards. Nanas are good like that. I like the patchwork look of using different patterns for each part. I used PVA diluted with water and cut out a small finger hole as shown here:

I lined them with plain white paper cut to the same pattern as the drawers and trimmed to fit.

The large box was made much the same way, I initially left it unlined as the drawers hide the inside surfaces, but then I found I would often take the drawers out completely when using them. I had recently found some adhesive drawer liner at the closest dollar shop for just under $4 a roll and tried it out. Slightly easier to use than paper but it was still a little bit fiddly getting it inside which resulted in a couple of air bubbles. Flatten them out and you can hardly tell though.

 The finished article all fits together like this. I was surprised at how well the drawers work without anything to support them from underneath, I can slide one almost entirely out without the ones on top falling down. And aren't they cute!

Add an $8 picnic basket from the salvation army store and a few other miscellaneous boxes, and I have a much tidier sewing kit with room to grow. This is a big improvement on what was essentially a shoebox. After several years of shoebox storage I feel I am finally moving up in the world! I also picked up a couple of sewing patterns because at $1 each... why not.

Now I just need to think of a better way to store my fabric scraps...

 

For my first post I suppose I should give you an overview. Pretty much anything that involves making something pretty I will give a try. I sew a lot, I am very lucky to be the proud owner of both a sewing machine and overlocker, and make sure neither of them ever feel rejected. I have been making jewelery for a few years, and when the occasion calls I enjoy making handmade cards and scrapbooking. Unfortunately the last two don't happen quite so much now as in the decision for which piles of hoarded treasures I could bring to my flatting life the cards and papers lost out, though my scrapbooks have found their way here.

I also like to make art. Especially art that hides the fact that my drawing skill still have a lot of room for improvement. In fact anything that looks amazing with little skill required is in my opinion a winner. On this line crayon art is great, and Photoshop is pretty fun too.

I live in a tiny flat in a room that I would like to think screams personality, however it also often screams "you need a bigger room". While trying to think how to keep it all controlled I turned to trusty Google, and several hours later turned back with some severe crafter's envy but a lot of ideas. Now my room is a bit more manageable (at least until next study rush when everything will be covered in sheets of paper again).

I will try to document each project I do step by step with photos, however for some I will be migrating old projects from facebook and the depths of wherever they happen to be hiding. I hope you enjoy seeing what I come up with.