How to Create 4 Popular Melted Crayon Art
I love melted crayon art. And I love Jo.
Jo is one of my favorite people in the entire world. She’s also my sister. No, she’s not related to Liz or I by blood, nor did anyone in her family marry into mine. People like to tell me, “Oh, she’s not really your sister.” And I like to tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.
Most of the people related to me by blood aren’t worth even an iota as much as Jo. After 15 years in each other’s lives, I’m pretty confident in the fact that she’s my family. She’s there for me through the good, the bad, and the awkward. We’ve seen each other through some weird situations, and some unexplainable ones. The three of us are the Bennet Sisters, and that’s that. Found family is just as valid, just as important, and just as real as blood family.
So we kind of go crazy when one of us accomplishes anything. Even something as simple as going to bed on time.
In this case though, we were celebrating Jo’s college graduation. The ceremony was boring, that much I remembered. A year after, as I went through the same ceremony at the same venue, I pondered how I survived sitting through it for Jo. But I guess it was just the sheer amount of joy we all felt in that moment that buoyed the day. Seriously, college graduations are the worst when you’re the graduate sweating your butt off. The parties though, those are pretty cool. But parties mean gifts. And in this family, we do not skimp on gifts.
One thing Jo and I have always loved, and Liz begrudgingly put up with, is our love of Harry Potter. JK Rowling is totally an awful transphobic, greedy person. That’s a fact. But her books got both of us through a lot of rough times growing up. The fact that the woman who penned them is awful doesn’t take away how we feel about Harry and the wizarding world. We love it. I still read Harry Potter fanfiction that is a heck of a lot more inclusive, detailed, and more well-written than Rowling’s work. I’m happy to be a Gryffindor, with Jo a Ravenclaw, and Liz, hilariously enough, a proud Hufflepuff. Without Harry Potter, Jo and I may not have even became friends to begin with when we were kids looking for other little nerds.
I can’t take the credit for our first melted crayon art, a Hermione Granger silhouette and quote. Liz, the ever artistic one, had that brain blast. We waffled over what to get Jo for so long that we didn’t start making it until an hour before we were supposed to be at her party. Definitely cut it a little close! All the stress was worth it in the end when we saw how much Jo loved it. There’s just so many layers to the gift – our shared love of Harry Potter, our teasing over her being a know-it-all, our magical sisterhood. I love her. Liz loves her. And she loves us. Sisters.
4 years later, it still hangs in her room. We hope your crayon art is just as beloved by those you make it for.
To get you started, here are some of the supplies we used for our 4 different melted crayon art methods:
