DIY Crayon Initials

How fun and colorful are these! How many of us have TONS of broken crayons laying around that our kid have destroyed and they need to be thrown away? DON'T!! Now you have a use for them! I think these would be great in a play room or over a child's desk in their bedroom! I found this tutorial over at frugallifeproject.com

I saw this project online a while ago and thought "that is so cool" but never thought of doing it myself. Then as the end of school approached, I wondered what we could make for my kids' teachers. That's when I thought of the crayon initials! I came up with my own way of doing it which turned out great!

Supplies: a large box of new crayons ( I guess you could use old crayons too - might give it more character), tacky glue, white card stock, sand paper or sand block and a shadow box picture frame.

Make a document on the computer that is the same size as the frame. Put a light border around the image so you can use it as a cutting guide. Center the initial and color it light gray. You can also add the teacher's name on the computer or do it later by hand. Print the sheet out twice - once on regular white paper and once on white card stock. Trim the card stock sheet - the other one is just for the "practice"layout and doesn't need to be trimmed.

On your practice sheet (regular white paper), use the gray initial as a guide and start breaking and laying out the crayons.

I would lay the crayon down and then mark it with a pencil as to where I should break it. Then I would make a slit in the crayon with an exacto knife which would allow it to break it easily at the desired point. I used random colors but you could definitely choose a certain color palette and stick with that. I alternated tips and ends as well to add interest.

I sanded the ends a little bit when they didn't break evenly.

Here is the rough layout I had when all the crayons were lined up the way I wanted.

 

 

Once you have everything roughly lined up, it's time to glue the crayons down on the trimmed card stock piece. Put some tacky glue on the initial and start transferring the crayons one at a time from the rough layout to the card stock.

 

This part goes pretty fast, just make sure they are straight and that you can't see the gray letter that is underneath the crayons. The tacky glue takes a little bit to dry so you have a few minutes to move things around if you need to.

Once you have the crayons all laid out on the card stock, let it dry overnight. Frame it up the next day and you have a very unique gift that everyone will love! This would be a great gift for an artist or art teacher - or anyone that is creative!