Make: Melted Crayon Butterflies

I have a list a mile long of friends’ projects I’ve been dying to try! Last week I finally sat down, went through them all, and decided I wanted to share so many with you! Our tour of favorite ideas begins with my friend Shannon’s (Oh Creative Day) melted crayon art project!

If you haven’t seen the gorgeous wall hangings her kids made last year, prepare to be 100 shades of impressed. The simple process she used to create symmetrical art checked all of my boxes: creative materials, upcycled supplies, and endless options for color + design exploration.

Make a beautiful set of melted crayon butterflies inspired by our friend Shannon at Oh Creative Day!

We’re SO ready for spring that we thought we’d make a little seasonal magic and turn her crayon art into fluttering butterflies! I thought this would be a fun way to play with the symmetrical aspect of this art project. It’s also a great way to recycle broken crayons and old tees!

To make melted crayon butterflies you’ll need:

BASIC SUPPLIES:

A large square of cotton fabric (we used some muslin scraps, but you can recycle an old teeshirt!)
Scissors
Crayon shavings in multiple colors
An iron
Parchment or freezer paper

OPTIONAL SUPPLIES:

Our Butterfly Activity Printable Template Pack
Small wooden garden stakes (attach your butterflies and pop into a plant for instant spring!)

Colorful DIY Melted Crayon Butterfly Instructions:

Use our templates, a cookie cutter or freehand drawings to trace butterflies onto fabric
We cut out small butterfly shapes using a few custom-designed paper templates. You can sketch out some simple butterfly shapes, trace around a butterfly cookie cutter, or download our free printable templates to create a variety of butterflies.

*Eco-friendly note: this is a great way to re-purpose old sheets, teeshirts or similar items!
Cut out your butterflies
Using a pair of fabric shears or sharp scissors, cut your butterflies out of the fabric.
Create crayon scrapings and iron following instructions from Oh Creative Day
Follow the steps from Shannon’s melted crayon art tutorial and video. We followed her process and used all of her tips (right down to the technique she used for making crayon scrapings) and it worked perfectly! We took a little extra time to arrange colors and plan patterns, but the whole process from start to finish was about 30 minutes. You could easily make a bunch of these quickly if you wanted to use them for a party or decor!

And here’s the really fun part…because of the way the melted wax works with the cloth, you can shape them! Fold them in the middle and curl the wings to make them look like butterflies in flight! We’ll be attaching these to some garden stakes to spring up our indoor plants.

The truly unexpected outcome of this project was how many mini lessons were so easily incorporated. Our crayon art flutterbys led to a discussion on symmetry in nature, an hour of learning ALLL about butterflies, a lively demo on iron safety, and a video viewing of how crayons are made (full Mister Rodgers episode for the win!).

The is just the teeniest sample of the genius you’ll find over on Oh Creative Day. Shannon is one of our favorites, and as a bonus, her posts and personality are as bright and colorful as her projects. Every bite of wisdom is served with a generous helping of wit. In addition to her amazing work at Oh Creative Day, she teaches kid lit + art classes, and hosts a weekly craft challenge. Every account is a must follow…and heads up, if you’re not on her email list, you’re missing out on one of the best darn e-books I’ve ever been sent!