Recently I was using a candle and let C stick her fingertips into the melted wax.
Have you ever done that? It is so fun!
Feeling the warm wax harden onto your fingertips and then popping the wax off.
Suddenly it hit me,
wouldn't it be fun to do that with melted crayons and draw with your fingertips!?
So, that's what we did!!
If you try this please keep a close eye on your child at all times
and
test the wax yourself before allowing little fingers to try it
Melt your crayons on low heat in the oven
Once they're melted set them aside to cool for a few minutes.
I let them cool until they were a little hard on top but still soft in the middle.
Test the wax to make sure it isn't too hot and then let the kids dip their fingers in!
The girls loved this!
They liked how the wax was warm and squishy and how it hardened on their fingertips.
They tried "painting" with the wax still soft on their fingers and tried it after the wax was hard.
Little A liked making dots with the tips of her fingers
and dipping her fingers into the wax over and over again
mixing all the different colors together
her favorite part was picking off all the hard wax
leaving tiny little pieces all over her paper
As you can see, the girls really had fun exploring with the melted crayons
and all of the wax that was leftover is now hard and shaped like little crayon cookies!
If you're nervous about letting your little ones stick their fingers in warm wax
maybe try it with paintbrushes or cotton swabs.
Have fun!
Officially, this is called "encaustic" painting, with or without brushes. One thing I like about the brushes is that they remelt every time you put them back in the warm wax. I've never done this project with fingers because I keep the muffin pan on a heat source the whole time and the wax is too warm, but I'm going to try this the way you have it set up. I can't wait!!
ReplyDeleteThanks MaryAnn! I really wasn't sure what to call it, now I know! :) Let me know if you give it a go, my girls really liked it. The great thing about the wax is that it doesn't have to be that hot to stick to fingers. I really enjoyed doing it with them as well, who doen't like sticking their fingers in wax ;)
DeleteSo cool Aleacia!
ReplyDeleteThanks Brooke!
DeleteLove this idea. My kids always have their fingers in the candles. I wonder if I could put the muffin tray on a heating pad to keep the wax from hardening too fast. . .
ReplyDeleteIf you try it just keep checking the temperature. My only concern would be that it would keep the wax too warm. It doesn't need to be really melty in order to stick to fingers.
DeleteWhat a cool idea, I can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I hope you have fun!
DeleteI just adore this activity. I would have never thought of doing that with the crayons, but now I can't wait to try it with my girls. Pinning this! Vicky from www.messforless.net
ReplyDeleteThanks for pinning Vicky, I hope your girls like it as much as my girls did
DeleteSo fun! I remember playing with melted candle wax as a child -- I can't wait to try this!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have fun if you try it! I remember dipping my fingers into candles when I was younger also!
DeleteI love this idea. I know I will have fun because I always loved putting my finger in melted candle wax. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI always loved doing that too! :)
DeleteI've hesitated to work with melted crayons because I was concerned they'd smell bad (especially in the kitchen at work where the lunches are made). Not so bad, I take it?
ReplyDeleteHi TinyHandBigIdeas, I haven't had any problems at all with melted crayons smelling bad.You should give it a try!
DeleteI need to try this again... Maybe it was the cheap crayons that I used, or maybe it wasn't deep enough (need to "break" more crayons?), but they solidified too quickly, giving my daughter a chance to "paint" for only about a minute. I had to put them back in the oven three times before she was able to make enough marks on the paper to feel satisfied. What was your experience? How many crayons per muffin cup would you say you used? I put in one per cup. I definitely want to try it again, because it's such a neat idea! I remember making wax "coins" (covering a sucre with dripping, and then prying them off) in Ecuador as a child. There were always candles on hand, because the power went out regularly (to this day, though much more frequently back then). I never did it here, because candles are kept out of reach of children here. Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteHi Di! Thanks so much for visiting, I'm glad you decided to try this with your daughter! I had quite a few crayon pieces in each cup and only use Crayola, they are the best crayons for melting I've tried (and we melt crayons a lot!) I hope you give this another go, it was so fun to dip our fingers in the warm wax and draw/paint with them.
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