Crayon Melt Painting Tutorial

 Here is my version of the popular crayon blow drier art featuring some of my favorite colors.  Enjoy!

Supplies needed:
- Canvases (I used these 11"x14" canvases from JoAnn)
- Large Box
- Crayons
- Acrylic paint
- Paint brushes
- hot glue gun
- blow drier

Step 1: Paint the canvas.

  

Step 2: Glue crayons pieces to the end of the cardboard, glue a piece of cardboard behind the cardboard so that the crayons will be flush with the painting and attach the cardboard with the crayons to the canvas using tape.  

Step 2/3: Blowdry the crayons so that they melt onto the canvas.  Continue until you have the desired amount of melting.  Do this step inside a large box to minimize the mess.

Step 4: Make a knot on each end of a string. Glue the string onto the canvas ~2 inches below the top.

• Update: This method of hanging up the paintings did not work for long. After ~3 months, both paintings fell down. A better way to hang them up is to superglue a sawtooth picture hanger to the back of the canvases or to use superglue instead of the hot glue as pictured below.

Step 5: Hang the paintings and enjoy!

Tips: Make sure the crayons on the cardboard are flush with the front of the canvas.  This will prevent wax from running down the back of the canvas.  Any wax on the back of the canvas can be scraped off with a knife.  I went with the cheap option and used the off brand of crayons, but judging by online research, the general consensus is that Crayola works the best.

Fluffy Tutus for girls and teddy bears

I always like to make unique and quality gifts for my nieces.  I really enjoy putting the effort into the project and seeing their faces when they open up their gifts.  For my nieces' birthdays this year (Taryn is 5 and Audra is 3!), I made tutus and matching tutu teddy bears.  My oldest niece Taryn (who I knitted this elmo hat for when she turned 2) almost replaced her regular stuffed dog that she sleeps with every night with the tutu bear.  I will consider that a success!  :)

I previously made my niece Carleigh and myself matching pink tutu's.  I wore mine to the Halloween kickball game.  It turns out that you are never too old to dress up as a ballerina princess (or play kickball).  I based the tutu's for the girls on this tutorial.  Instead of buying the rolls of tulle, I bought 5 yards of tulle (this was enough for a little girl tutu and a bear tutu) but I could have bought even more to make the tutu's fluffier.  I cut the tulle fabric in half along the crease to give me two 27 inch high by 5 yard wide pieces of tulle.  I then cut about 10 inches of tulle off of one end and set it aside for the bear's tutu (~10" by 27" piece).

To make the tutu, I gathered one of the 27" by 5 yard pieces of fabric, folded about one yard of it in half lengthwise.  I cut a piece of 3/4" wide elastic to ~16" in length (~4 inches shorter than the girls' waist unstretched).  I then affixed a large safety pin to one end of the elastic, inserted the elastic into the fold of the tulle, and sewed in a straight stitch along the elastic.  When I reached the end of the elastic, I lifted my presser foot and, without cutting the thread, scrunched the tulle toward the end of the elastic with the safety pin.  The safety pin should hold the tulle in place.  When it is fully scrunched, replace the tulle into the sewing machine where you left off sewing, and continue sewing along the fold until you come to the end of the elastic.  Repeat the scrunching and sewing process and add the second piece of tulle once the first one is finished.  When you come to the end of the second piece of tulle, reverse sew to secure the stitch and cut the thread.  Sew the elastic band together using a zig-zag stitch with ~1" overlap.  Voila - you have a tutu!


To make the bear tutu, I repeated the process for the girl's tutu, but with the smaller tulle that I saved earler.  I used a scrap piece of tulle to make the bow and I sewed the bow in front of the bear's ear.

I found the bears at Wal-Mart for ~5 dollars apiece the tulle at Joann for ~2 dollars a yard.  This project is a super cute and super affordable to show your love for your favorite little girls (or big girls too!)

Mario Knit Hat 2 - In color!

This hat was a special request by my friend Nick Tran.  I based the design upon the Mario Hat pattern (posted on this blog on November 13, 2012).  He requested a green brim, green and red flowers, and yellow stars on a blue background that would resemble a level in Super Mario.  He also wanted a fireball pompom on the top.  I dug in my stash and found the appropriate colors and got to work.

I based this pattern off the original pattern, but I paid more attention when I was decreasing and took much better notes.  I altered the pattern after completing the hat by removing a row from the flower stem and the row between the flowers and the stars.  This will allow more room to complete the star before decreasing.  The next time I will make this hat, I will follow those instructions and document the result.  The updated pattern can be found here.

Even though the stars are a little squished at the top, I really like the finished product.  As with many of my patterns, you often must carry the non-worked color behind for quite a few stitches and it is essential to wrap that yarn around the worked stitch behind the pattern to maintain the stretch. 

Click here for directions for the original Mario Knit Hat