Create a Wax and Watercolor Space Scene!

Color with Crayons on white paper and wash over the whole thing with dark blue watercolor 

This is easy as pie and and a fun coloring & painting project for kids. Basically, we used crayons to color on white paper and then painted it with blue watercolor.  On Education.com they list this project with the suggestion of using this opportunity to discuss landscapes, nightscapes and famous works like “Starry Night” by Van Gough.  We have talked about “Starry Night” before and were more into talking about wax, so I told her a few things about wax and water:

The Science of it: Water does not stick to wax because wax belongs to a large class of organic chemicals that are hydrophobic.  “Hydrophobic” literally means “afraid of water”.  Organic chemicals contain carbon, and tend to not be mixable with water (with certain notable exceptions like alcohols). When it’s 2 liquids that encounter each other, it just means that if you don’t stir them constantly, they will separate out into 2 layers. When it is water and a solid, such as the wax, it results in hydrophobicity. Hydrophobicity refers to the degree in which water forms into beads or spreads and flows across the wax.  This all has to do with surface tension, but this is as far as we wanted to go with scientific explanations.  Captain noted the grooviness of wax and “hydrophobicity” and then we talked about space, black holes and planets while we colored and painted.  It was really fun!  I did one too 🙂

I want to make an important note here.  Captain is 5 years old and is not going to benefit from too much explanation about the deeper science of wax and water.  Some might wonder why I would even talk about these things, as she certainly is not going to remember all this stuff, but I truly believe, in fact I KNOW from raising this scientifically-minded child, that it is not about pounding in the facts!  It is really about brushing up against things and letting little bits and pieces soak in wherever they may.  It’s like looking at stars:  it affects us even if we don’t know all of the names of the constellations…  All in all, it works and its’s an awesome way to learn!

One other thing that did come out of this project is that we are dying to get a big chunk of beeswax (oooooh, I adore beeswax in ways I can’t explain!!) and 2 large canvasses to melt and drip and then paint.  Captain wants to go with acrylics already and I just don’t know for myself yet, but I am soooo excited to try.

If you mess around with wax and paints in any form and care to share, we would LOVE to see some pics here at kartwheels!

Cheers and Beeswax!  Karen

Crayon Cupcakes!

Recycled Crafts: One thing to do with all of those leftover bits of crayons!

We were looking for a way to recycle and reuse a jar of broken crayon pieces, and really wanted to melt them with an iron between sheets of wax paper to make “stained glass” crafts, but alas, I realized we were low on gas for the generator to power the cabin to run the iron, and at the same time realized that I don’t own an iron anyways! Aside from they joy I took in knowing that I never need to actually use an iron, we forwent that activity and looked around for something else to do with the crayons.

We decided to melt them down to make our own crayons!

Method

We removed all of the wrappers from the crayon bits. I put a muffin tin on the table and Captain put a paper cupcake liner in each hole. We used the small-sized liners and they worked great; next time we will try the full sized ones as well. Now for the fun part! Captain filled each of the cups with different combinations of the crayons, breaking them into even smaller pieces as needed. Fill the cups about 2/3 full. Place in a 250 degree oven for about 10 minutes and then check them often until they are “done”. The pieces should be soft but not completely melted. I didn’t know to keep the oven on low and our crayons completely melted but turned out really cute anyways. I looked online and found Dina Brook’s method on Education.com and also saw that another mom wrote in to say that she puts the crayons into silicone baking molds to make shapes like seahorses and hearts- fun!

After they cooled, Captain enjoyed peeling the wrappers from them and we put them on a dish to admire. The “cupcakes” are fun to color with and she was excited to save one for her Grandma and Auntie as they make a sweet recycled gift!

Good times, I love the age of 5!

Cheers, Karen