Simple Easter Craft for kids.

My kids love the process of creating melted crayon art.  There is something wonderful about watching a broken crayon pool and melt leaving behind a beautiful design.  Your kids will love making this simple Melted Crayon Cross craft.  It is a beautiful sun-catcher that will dress up your window for Easter.

To make this simple cross, you will need:

• Broken crayons with out wrappers (scroll down for my easy crayon peeling tip)
• Baking stone wrapped in tin foil ~ Ours is a pampered chef brand.  We warmed our stone in the oven and wrapped it in a couple layers of tinfoil.  You can also use an Electric Griddleset on warm.  Please be careful, and don’t leave your child unattended. 
• Cotton gloves ~ to help protect little fingers from hot wax and warm trays.
• Vellum paper ~ any transparent paper works well.  We have even had good results with regular computer paper, but I prefer to use vellum.
• Black construction paper
• White Glue
• Scissors, hole punch and fishing line (to hang the crosses in your window).

I had the kiddos wear little gloves as an extra precaution against the heat and melting wax. Warm the baking stone or griddle and wrap in tin foil.  Place the vellum onto the warm tin foil and start drawing.  I found that it was easiest if i taped the sheet of paper down so that it did not wiggle and no little fingers had to hold it.

Melting crayons is a wonderful way to play with color!  As the crayons melt, they glide smoothly across the paper and the colors pool together beautifully.  Straight lines, squiggly lines, puddles, and pools all work wonderful for this project.  It is a truly soothing process.  You can draw a picture or just play with a patchwork of color

 Quick secret to removing crayon wrappers:

Soak the crayons in water and the wrappers will fall right off!  Yep you heard me right, no more wax under your nails as you try to peel off the wrapper.  Just simple place your crayons in a bowl of water, let them soak for around 10 mins and peel.  Easy peasy!  Dry crayons before melting with them!

 To create the black cross silhouette:

• Fold your black paper in half 
• Create a simple half cross template on a cereal box.  You will only need half the cross because you are making it on the fold and then opening it up to a full cross.  Think of how you cut out a heart.  You only cut out half a heart and then open it to a full heart.  Same idea.
• Trace the half cross onto the folded paper and cut out.
• Leaving the cross folded, simply cut just inside the cross all the way around.  Leaving a skinny outline and a smaller solid cross.

Glue the cross outline onto the cooled melted crayon art.  Once everything is dry, cut the melted crayon art to the same size as the black outline.  Punch a hole in the top of the cross and string on fishing line in your window.

 I love how the melted crayon cross looks just like stained glass.

This is NOT an activity to set up and let your child do on their own.  You know your child and their limits.  Please be careful and take precaution with your kids.

I love how this string of colorful Melted Crayon Crosses look hanging in my window.  A fun reminder of why our family celebrates Easter.

For more simple Cross Crafts, check out our:

Light Ray Cross

String Art Cross

Egg Carton Cross