Points of Light

I adhered marbles

to the knotholes in our old fence.

As the sun sets each evening

the light shines through

gifting us

with colorful points of light.

And when the vines die back this winter? 

They'll be the stars of the show.

Melted Crayon Art

The teaser:

I wanted to attempt some melted crayon art because long ago I was inspired by this piece. I saw it on Pinterest where it was pinned from an Etsy shop. It seems that shop may not be in business anymore, so unfortunately I can't credit the original artist. My attempt was much smaller.

Inspiration Photo

I thought these glitter crayons might bring some extra pizzazz to my little artwork.

I used two of the three small 4" x 6" canvases in this pack from Dollar Tree. 

In most of the tutorials I watched, the crayons were placed closely side-by-side, then adhered to the top of the canvas with hot glue. I only had one pack of crayons, so I dry-fit them in place, ultimately  spacing them out a bit.

I didn't want to have the crayons stuck to the top of my finished piece, so I first taped the two canvases together, the finished canvas beneath the canvas holding the crayons. I peeled the paper off the crayons and cut them in half. Then I used hot glue to adhere them to the bottom edge of the upper canvas. 

To make sure they stayed in place, I also taped the top edge of the crayons to the canvas.

Using some clear Contac paper, I cut out two heart shapes and placed them on the lower canvas. 

I decided to try the crayon art on a day when the temperature reached over 100 degrees. I wanted to see if the sun could melt the crayons. I covered some cardboard in foil, then set the canvases on top. I placed the apparatus in direct sunlight, with a heavy rock to hold everything in place.

Then I waited.

When the heat of the day was over, not much had happened. A couple of the crayons had fallen off the canvas when the sun melted the hot glue. So I counted the melt-in-the-sun part of the experiment as a fail and brought the apparatus back into my Studio.

I got out my heat gun, tilted the canvas "just so," and started melting the crayons. The melting happened instantly.

Check out that concentration on my face!

Dale helped by taking these photos of the process. I was glad to have the cardboard/foil under the canvases. They made clean-up a breeze because all the extra melted crayon pooled on the foil.

Here's what the lower canvas looked like when the crayon wax cooled and dried.

Then I peeled the hearts off the canvas.

This is what was underneath. Obviously, the Contac paper didn't adhere to the bumpy canvas thoroughly, so the crayons seeped underneath a lot.

So I took a blue Sharpie and traced around the edges of the hearts to make them more pronounced. After that I used watercolors to fill in the white parts of the hearts, extending the rainbow pattern the crayons made. I used a light blue watercolor to fill in the white parts of the canvas background.

I found a slightly-dinged-up frame in my stash and slid the artwork into it.

Here's my final result:

This was a fun process. I can see trying it again, perhaps. I'll know to:

1. Have more crayons. Make sure they're a quality name brand (melts better) and plain, not glittered.
2. Try a smoother background like poster board instead of a canvas.
3. Make sure whatever I use for a sticker adheres really well, but can still be removed after the melting process. Perhaps I'd try some kind of resist like what's used in watercolor or batik.
4. Not bother setting it outside. Use a heat gun in the first place. Much faster and allows for more control.
5. I'd like to try this with my granddaughters.

Even though the glitter crayons didn't add much of anything to finished piece, the pool of overflow crayon left on the foil was pretty.

This is the last project I made on my Crafting Retreat. It was an excellent weekend. I gave myself permission to let some regular life stuff go, and allow my creative juices to run.

I'm Full of Hot Air

OK friends. I'll likely agree with you if you think I'm losing my marbles with this one.

I'm going to blame it on the high high heat.

Welcome to my living room, and its current feature ... The Balloon Bouquet

The supplies:

This is the third craft attempted with these balloons. The first two were utter fails. This one is close on its heels. But ... let's just say I was going for whimsy.

I blew up each balloon, adding a skewer into the knot as I tied it. The balloons are poked into a piece of floral foam that's taped into a glass vase shaped like a basket. Each balloon has a unique "flower" design drawn with my hands-of-skill.

Some, barely flowers. But they're fanciful. 

Whimsical. 

I see signs of my tired, overwhelmed mind.

It's time to put these particular craft supplies away and move onto something that I'll feel more confident trying. 

So ... TA-DA!  

:: shaking head and giggling ::

 

Glitter Ornaments

When my husband spent time time celebrating his brother's 65th birthday, I decided to have a two-day Crafters Retreat. My piles of  "next projects" are teetering, so I thought I'd see if I could winnow them down a bit by having some crafting fun.

I started by making glitter ornaments.

I learned about this technique on Facebook and Pinterest. I gathered the plastic globe ornaments, some floor wax, and all the glitter I had on hand. Glitter can be so messy, so I covered my surfaces thoroughly. I also prepared my drying racks.

First, pull off the ornament topper. Pour in some floor wax. Swirl the wax inside the ornament so the entire surface on the inside is covered. Drain the excess liquid.

Carefully pour some glitter inside the ornament. Swirl and shake until the glitter covers the entire inside surface. Turn the ornament upside down and shake out the excess glitter. 

Some tips? 

• Swirl the floor wax around the globe instead of shaking it. Shaking causes bubbles to form.
  
• Fine glitter works somewhat better than big glitter. I used up all my big glitter on this project before trying the fine glitter. The fine glitter coated more thoroughly.
• Don't be stingy with the glitter. Adding a larger-than-needed amount seemed to help coat the inside of the ornament better, even if you end up shaking a lot of the excess back out. The excess can be used on the next ornament. For this ornament, I had to combine three colors of glitter to have enough to cover the inside surface.
  
  

Set the ornaments upside down on the rack until dry.

Add the topper back in. I decided to use a 12 inch length of white satin ribbon to tie a bow around the top of each ornament.

Overall, this was a fairly successful operation. I'll need to dig out some nail polish remover to get rid of some sticky spots on the outside of a couple of the ornaments. I used plastic ornament globes. The blue one got smunched in and I couldn't get the dent out all the way. That one I'll keep for myself. But it's pretty nice to already have the 2025 family Christmas ornaments done!

Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone these are really 10 months late. I'd originally planned to make them for 2024.

Here's one of the videos I used to help me learn:

One craft complete for the Crafter's Retreat! Now ... which technique to pick next?

Other Than Sunflowers ...

These beauties are gracing our yard in August.

The strawberry plants have sent out runners. I thought the fruit was done for the season. But the leaves are lush, and a few more flowers are blooming. Today I even found four more ripe berries!

These pansies are technically volunteers (weeds!) that are creeping through the bark on the ground in the front yard. But I like them, so have been fertilizing them and encouraging them to grow.

The mum plant I bought last September decided to stick around all year. The plant has doubled in size. This is the first little bud to open.

The morning glories are doing well. Nearly the entire back fence is covered in the vines. The flowers are starting to emerge - in three colorways:

Alongside the driveway, our neighbor's large hibiscus bush is in full bloom. So pretty. Reminds me of where I grew up in southern California.

This is a drop in the bucket of the colorful vegetation in Eugene at this time of year. Wait until you see the flowers I spotted on my walk. Gorgeous.

Sunflower Season

The sunflower decorations inside my house are, of course, inspired by all the sunflowers blooming in our area at this time of year. Here are some I saw on this morning's walk through a community garden at a local high school.

Do you see the friendly bee?

These two bloomed in my own yard! I was determined to join the community sunflower gang this year.

She opened yesterday.

Her brother started opening up today.

With more on the way.

I've got nearly a dozen plants. Undoubtedly I won't be able to resist photographing them some more as they burst into bloom.