Melted Crayon Art Fun for Kids

You may have seen the Crayola crayon headdress I made yesterday for a homemade costume accessory for my daughter. Today’s post is about making art with crayons, but by melting them on a hot plate.

My daughter recently took an after school art class with her cousin while we were visiting my sister and family in Northern California. The art teacher has a number of creative stations set up for the kids, and my daughter’s favorite was the melted crayon station. I was amazed at the ingenuity of it. The teacher had set up a couple of vintage hot plates, gave the kids safety instructions, gave them paper, and let them create their own modern art melted crayon art.

I just knew I had to replicate this at home. This is a fun boredom busting kids project – good for both outdoors and indoors.

All you need is a hot plate, an electrical outlet, crayons, paper, and your imagination.

Do you still have one of these vintage hot plates? I found mine at a local thrift store, and couldn’t wait to use it for a fun kids art activity!

I found this hot plate at a local thrift store for the whopping price of $1.75! We used regular white copy paper, and just a regular old crayons.

My daughter had a friend over, so I plugged in a skillet for her friend to use. I set it at the lowest setting, and just made sure to tell the girls to not touch the edges of the skillet.

The trick is to hold the crayon upright without resting your hand on the surface. Draw very slowly and let the crayon melt as you draw. It creates the cool effect, and feels really slippery as you move the crayon around. You can peel away the paper as needed.

Another tip, is that when you are ready to pull your artwork off of the hot surface, use your nails instead of your fingertips so you don’t burn them.

The girls had a blast making their melted crayon art.