Melted crayons and vivid leaves

Sounds colorful doesn’t it? My kids and I spent the better part of an afternoon crafting, making messes, dripping wax all over the kitchen table and abandoning any chance of getting the next math lesson done. It was worth it.

This is a conventional autumn craft with a waxy twist! As with most autumn crafts, you need leaves. It’s peak fall this week so we were able to find the freshest, brightest leaves today. Mmmm….fresh, bright and crunchy.

Along with Mother Nature’s beautiful contribution, you need:

Crayon shavings (or glitter if you’re not up for spoiling crayons)

Wax paper

An iron – and a large sheet of paper and a paper towel to keep the iron from directly touching the craft

Scraps and glue for framing

(Adorable children not necessary but recommended)


The first step is shaving your crayons, which is totally rad if you’re a kid because don’t you normally get into trouble for breaking crayons? I always did. My own kids looked at me skeptically when I gave them the green light to “sharpen” their crayons and save the shavings in a bowl. Their trepidation lasted all of three seconds before they got down to business. Even purples and blues added amazing color to our project so mix up your color choices!

Once you’re happy with your rainbow of shavings, put them all together and crunch up the bigger pieces with your fingers. Super tactile Montessori fun! Even I couldn’t keep my fingers out of the bowl.

Now it’s time to get creative, channel your inner Warhol and get funky baby. Place one sheet of wax paper atop a large sheet of paper and become one with the leaves. Feel the leaves, let the leaves tell you where they want to be.

After you’ve achieved happy leaf placement, sprinkle your inspiration with shavings. Don’t be shy now! When I say sprinkle, I really mean heap those yummy-looking shavings all over the wax paper and leaves. And yes, they really are yummy-looking. However my three-year-old will tell you they don’t taste very yummy and unfortunately, he discovered that from first-hand experience. I’m sure he’ll have a rainbow poop for me tomorrow.

And we're sprinkling darling. Sprinkle like you mean it.

Now you step in and get the melting done. Set your iron on medium and apply pressure slowly and evenly. Don’t forget to put a paper towel between the iron and the wax paper! Because that would be bad. I’m not telling you this from experience. No I’m not. Okay, maybe I am.

I spent about five minutes on each craft.

And we have a melty masterpiece! Stars in my eyes they're cute kids.

As for framing them, we cropped the crafts evenly across the top, bottom and sides and used all kinds of scraps to glue along the edges. My son color-coordinated a green border with red corners. I was impressed. And a little jealous that his looked nicer than mine.

Or, if you’re my daughter, you decide to cut out 293 tiny triangles for a most charming mosaic frame. Straight lines or funky shapes - whatever works, right?

Hang them where they’ll get plenty of sunshine and ooh's & ahhh's.