Recently I was introduced to crayon art and I have become slightly addicted 🙂
There’s so much fun involved but it only takes the simplest of supplies and watching the colors liquefy and emerge and blend is absolutely fascinating and delightful!
It reminds me of life.
Recently I sat with an elderly patient who had lived for over a decade! Their thoughts rambled all over the creation And I wondered if it was all bits and pieces of their years of living. Like this ….
“There’s only one life. Go to Paris.”
Or this “it’s time to expire. Retire. Join the choir.”
Maybe they were a poet in their early days 🙂
They lay awake most of the night saying random sentences that rambled all over. They asked for Apple pie and cream and picked chicken out of the air and thought they were eating it. I saw colors all through their speeches and random thoughts.
Everyone warned me about this individual. How combative they could get. I always like to pray on my way to work and even during the day before I am assigned my shift. I pray that God would put me where He wants me and help me share God’s love to anyone I care for. I sat there in the room with this elderly person and prayed that God could keep them calm and help them relax .it wasn’t all roses by any means but God totally was with us and the night went well. He colored my world with grace and answered prayer!
One of my friends here at the hospital tells me how she prays Gods angels around and with her as she enters ‘difficult patients’ rooms and even as she works up and down the hallways. Believe me, she is one of the most highly respected CNAs at this hospital. Not only can she often calm people, she also ‘bends over backward’ to make them comfy. Like doing laundry for some long term patients that involved going to an entirely different tower here at the hospital and using a tiny washer in the pediatric unit. She is coloring her world.
We all color our world in different ways.
Like my four year olds smile and his frank funny outlook on life. His hugs and snuggles and exuberance over playing ball in the small back yard and insisting you threw ‘a ball’ ! NOT a ‘strike’! Or the way he tries so hard to be independent and songs little songs to the freshly planted seeds to make them grow. Colors. Colors everywhere. Every day.
This is one of the colors I want to paint my world with. The color of prayer.
And the color of words of life and grace to everyone around me. In my words and in my thoughts.
And of course….the color of LOVE!
This is one of my favorite pieces.
I need to constantly be reminded that God delights in His children. That the color of Love is never out given.
Go ahead…. color your world!
And now just a few crayon art tips…..
I peeled the paper off the crayons by slicing the back of the paper with a razor and popping it off. They melted much more nicely 🙂 Pintrest is loaded with amazing ideas for crayon art and gives good directions.
Here are a few of my tips.
– Crayola crayons make a thicker wax. Other cheap brands make more of a water color type wax.
– Dollar Store crayons (with no writing on the crayons) don’t melt.
– use hot heat with high blow drying unless you want more control….then slow down to low speed.
– have plenty of newspaper on hand to catch all the splats and drips.
– it may take longer then you think for them to melt 🙂
– an easy way for kids to do it is if you color boldly on canvas then let them blow dry it. The colors melt without so much splatting.
One more thing…wear old clothes or old pjs 😉 unless of course you want crayon art on you by accident. Or maybe you are just a bit less messy then me 😉
Wildflower Muse 