Flowers for a Flower

This past week was my brother's 40th birthday and this coming week is my niece, Sawyer's 4th birthday.  So to accompany the actual presents purchased in a store, I decided to make them each a craft this year, since that seems to be my shtick lately. 

I made my brother a 'king can' version of a red neck wine glass to use at his party (for pop silly, he doesn't drink) since he was the birthday boy, but the bugger never even used it!  Thankfully his wife, Anita, discovered the cubic capacity of the glass and stole it for her beer.  My kind of girl.

For Sawyer I decided to experiment with some crayon art that I'd seen on Pinterest.  I was able to find some canvas for $2 and I got some crayons and fake flowers at the Dollarama. 

I bought four boxes of crayons, because I mainly wanted to stick to greens, yellows, blues, oranges and browns.  (I figure I'll make another crayon art using the reds, pinks, and purples down the road.)  I then took my new, handy, dandy glue gun (works like a a glue gun should which is great since it's my 3rd one) and glued the crayons to the top of the board pointing down.  I then took my hair dryer and put it on medium heat and began melting the crayons.  It takes a while, have patience.  And as note for the next time, I probably should used the diffuser attachment to help keep the hot air concentrated on certain areas.  Make sure you have some newspaper under it as the wax will run and sometimes it splattered off the canvas.  I had propped the canvas up on the back of a chair so gravity could assist me and I found that helpful as well. 

Once I got the look I was going for, I plugged my trusty glue gun back in and by the time it had heated up, the running wax had solidified in place.  I then glued some silk (I use that term loosely as they're made of polyester) flowers randomly onto the streaks thus creating a garden when you flip the canvas over and the crayons are now at the bottom. 

This craft took maybe an hour and most of that was melting the crayons.  The whole thing probably cost me 18 dollars total and I still have flowers and crayons left over for another project, so let's cut that in half shall we?  So for $10  I made Sawyer a craft from her Auntie Holly, and then I jotted a little note on the back for her.  Maybe she'll keep it around for when she's older (which would be cool) or maybe she won't.  Either way, it was a fun craft and one I'd do again.  I have something in mind already for Round 2.