Kristi R Schueler schueler@prairie.nodak.edu Can you elaborate on the crayon melting process? It sounds really interesting, but I can't quite figure out how it was used. Was it used like you would use sealing wax?

Martha Jackson marthaj@concentric.net You could use the technique where you color randomly over the entire paper, cover that with black crayon, stamp and emboss over that, then scratch (with a pin) the black inside your image (leaving some lines of black). That will give an interesting effect to your stamped image. The card I saw done that way had all the scratch lines going the same way, not random.

Jamiee Olyvia29@aol.com Take crayons and shave small slivers off onto a piece of aluminum foil. After you have a nice pile built up, heat the foil from the bottom with your heat tool. The crayon shavings will melt to the foil. You can then cut or tear around the meltings and use it as embellishment. I do this quite often for my collages! You can also use crayons as a wax resist. I like to use dark paper and a dark colored crayon. I scribble all over the paper with the crayon, and then I ink up the paper with clear embossing ink. I then pour several colors of EP on the paper. The EP will only stick to the areas that are not scribbled with crayon...way cool background!!

Mary Lee mlee@creativecourseware.com Subject: Melted crayon backgrounds I use an electric skillet and lay a sheet of aluminum foil on it. Heat the skillet. Pick out some crayons with colors that go well together. When your skillet is hot, "color" on the foil till you've melted as much crayon as you want. Color with the different crayons - they'll melt together some. Lay a piece of CS on the melted crayons for just a second and then pick it up (don't burn your fingers). The crayon will dry in a second. The gold and silver crayons look great. My daughter got a box of holiday glitter ones last year and hasn't touched em so they're next on the melting list.

Jane Jeffery JaneyBirdX@aol.com I received Kari Mattocks' Gem Crayon sheet (along with her Custom Collage Packs). This is where you turn on your iron (no steam on), cover the holes, apply Gem Crayon directly to hot iron, then iron the waxy smooshin's onto cardstock. Repeat with various colors to make it more interesting. Unfortunately, I could not find the Gem Crayons at the time, so I found the Crayola Pearl Brites and Glitter Crayons and did my own rendition of Kari's method without using my iron. Here's what I did: Took some dark cardstock with a rough texture, scribbled the Pearl Brites (or Glitter) crayons all over, but not completely covering the paper. Took my heat gun and blasted it so that the crayon wax melted on the paper. Next, got out the Colorbox Petal Points and Cats Eyes (Pigment Ink) and touched them every which way on top of and in between the previously applied melted crayon markings. Then, I covered the whole card with Amazing Glaze and once again blasted it with the heat gun. Comes out sort of like an enameled tile and very artsy looking. Looks great for layering, etc.

InspiredC@aol.com backgrounds with crayons.....(try glitter crayons too ) Put aluminum foil over the metal of your iron...Turn it on without steam....lol(of course ) when hot, move your desired color of crayon around on the foiled iron apply crayoned iron to your paper project...use zig zags, circles.......any movement creates a variety of effects....... its best to have a big sheet of paper out... or many lil' ones to do a bunch at once.... play with this..it makes really cool background paper..... I cover my craft iron with the foil...heat it up (no steam) then rub the crayons in all directions...... The glitter crayons are very cool.....Then you just rub your iron across the cardstock........It created some greatbackground paper...... I think you'd have to have a pretty large (area) stamp image, or be able to sharpen the daylights out of the crayons continuosly....as it's hard to stay in lil' lines.....If you do use them...I always put a piece of paper over the finished design and apply iron for 10 sec. or sew.(maybe not as long on paper as on fabric.enough to pull out the wax to set color....... it gives a fun childlike (kindof) effect.....which is nice .....being out of the normal beautiful watercolor effects..etc..... I prefer to color in , with the prismacolor pencils.....I still use the iron on them sometimes, or the acrylic spray sealer to set the color...

Donna Joy gjoy@dhc.net I like to sharpen crayons, save the shavings, and sprinkle on cardstock. I then heat from underneath w/heat gun-makes a neat background-and you can add glitter too.

Dawn Beadles beadles@bunt.com I read in a book to add crayon shavings to the paper pulp while blending. Then iron them to make them melt. I have done this and it looks wonderful. And of course you can make it a theme because you can pick the colors you want. I mean they make what over 50 different colors now!! Hope you don't already have this one.

Barbara Holl bholl@halcyon.com Here is my offering for making Crayon Paper. I love to do this and the effects are quite different every time. Our Technique group just completed a study on this topic and we received some lovely, innovative cards. You're only limited by your imagination! How to make Crayon Paper Barbara Holl 1997 Supplies needed: Index stock
Crayons (Crayola brand in the US)
Glitter crayons
Gem Tones
Regular Crayons
Iron
Heavy duty Aluminum Foil
Thick pad of newspapers Place the pad of newspapers on the ironing board or table. Cover the iron with foil and be sure there are no holes in the foil. Turn iron on to the cotton setting. While iron is heating, peel back some of the paper from three crayons you've chosen to use. When iron is hot, hold it upside down and gently push the lightest color crayon onto the foil. Put two or three puddles and quickly turn iron over and press onto the index stock twisting and lifting at the same time. Repeat this step until all three colors have been placed on the index stock. Do not try to cover all the white part of the index stock. When you are done clean the foil by ironing on the newspaper. Throw that sheet of the newspaper away before ironing again. This cardstock can now be used to make boxes, backgrounds for stamped images, stamp image on it and cut out. Stamped images may also be heat embossed. Your imagination is free to experiment. This is a simple and quick way to get a different look for your stamping.

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