Make'n'Give Teacher Gift...from the class!

This has been a very popular gift to teachers...especially that it is so personalized.

Needed:

- 1 Canvas (Dollar Stores have great prices) I would suggest no larger than 11x14 inches in size.

- 2-3 boxes of crayons...depending on the size of the canvas (enough to fit across the top of the shorter length of canvas.)

- Hot glue gun

- White acrylic paint

- Duck or cloth tape

- Hairdryer

- Scissors

- Plastic or newspaper to protect the area.

- Piece of wax paper

- Tweezer

- 3 waterproof and fade proof pigment ink pens...brown, green and red.

Instruction's:

I Googled a basic apple shape as a template and printed it...or you can make your own..I glued the template to a cereal box (or other cardboard) to make it easier to trace with...then I cut it out.

I took some cloth tape (or duck tape) and traced the 3 piece's of pattern on the tape.  I used wax paper to put the tape on to keep it stable as I traced the pattern and cut it out. I used about 3 piece's overlapping each other to make a larger piece to trace the main apple shape.

Place the apple to the side...now figure out the order of colours you want the crayons in...try to create a pattern of some sort...I tried to use bright colours only...I decided to not use black, brown, gray, white...lay them out before you glue them and make sure it covers the entire shorter length top of the canvas.  Hot glue gun the crayons on...put the glue on the canvas and NOT on the crayons...less chance of burning yourself or melting the crayon with the glue gun.  I tried to make sure only the colour names showed and not the brand of crayon I used.

Now stick your apple tape design about the middle of the canvas...and a ways away from the crayons...try to make sure it is stuck on really well particularly around the edges so it does no let the crayon bleed underneath it...(not to well that you can't remove it later)...as well to prevent it from peeling up as you use the hairdryer.

Now comes the messy part...please make sure you cover the ENTIRE area you work...you will find bits of wax everywhere it splatters at times...consider yourself forewarned...I hung mine up on a wall to let the dripping happen naturally...put your hairdryer on hot and medium/high setting and start working the crayons...slowly work from the top down always...and try to keep the heat consistent on each of the crayons so they melt equally.

Really work the crayons...this step takes a bit of time and experimenting until you get the top to melt and move down the canvas evenly...the good thing...you can always go over it again with the hairdryer to correct any "mistakes" (I hate this word there are NO mistakes in art).

Again it may take a bit of time till you get the effect/look you want or like.  Make sure the apple tape pattern is mainly all covered in crayon wax.

Let it cool for a bit...5 minutes...now it is time to pull off the tape apple design.

I used a tweezer to get it started.

I did have a problem with some of the wax bleeding under the taped area...I solved that quickly...by using some acrylic white paint...I painted over the whole apple pattern carefully...it did a nice job to cover up the bleeding areas and brighten up the apple for the next step.

I got some waterproof and fade proof pens in three different colours...brown pen for the TEACHERS name in the stem...green pen for the green leaf to put "Class of  20__/20__" and a red pen for the names of students/classroom aid for the main apple part.  Have the kids add there own names to it.

It's ready to wrap up and give to your child's favorite teacher....

The teacher loved it and it's still hanging proudly in their class...I love this project! :)

NOTE: I crossed off the kids names due to confidentiality...so I could share this pic on the web of the final gift.

If you have any questions or thoughts please send them to StiQman@gmail.com