Fanci Freez

When I was in Idaho for Banana Ball, Kari suggested lunch at Fanci Freez. Fanci Freez been around since 1947 and has won quite a few "Best of Boise" awards. I happily agreed. Everything on their menu looked pretty good, but when I travel I tend to order things you can't get anywhere else, particularly if they're significant to the area. I have never seen a Huckleberry Cheeseburger before and huckleberries are Idaho's state fruit, so that's what I ordered. Doesn't it look amazing?!

The Huckleberry Cheeseburger features a burger patty with fresh huckleberry spread, lettuce, onion, and blue cheese on a corn-dusted bun. I paired it with a huckleberry milkshake. When in Idaho, always get the huckleberry!

After we ordered our food, I intended to take pictures, read the plaques on the wall, etc. but I was immediately distracted by crayons and a stack of coloring pages. I sat down and started coloring. Our food was ready really quickly - usually a good thing, but I had barely made any progress coloring! I reluctantly set my coloring page aside. We ate our food and it was SO GOOD. I will definitely be requesting Fanci Freez and the Huckleberry Cheeseburger next time I visit. 

Back at Kari's house, I finished coloring while the rest of the family played  games. 

I colored the whole page with the crayons at the restaurant and the Twistables that Kari had. Her tabletop is textured, so I got a cool effect coloring the title and background. 

It turns out that this coloring page wasn't just something fun to entertain kids and craft bloggers waiting for their food; Fanci Freez is running a 79th anniversary coloring contest. I can't enter since my page is here with me in California and not turned in at their Meridian location, which is fine since I don't know that the contest is for 54-year olds. 

I've added Fanci Freez to my list of restaurants you should definitely visit when you're in Idaho. No doubt I'll be back! And I'll be having the Huckleberry Cheeseburger every time. 

Crayon-Resist Swallowtail Butterfly

I liked the results of my wax-resist Colorado hairstreak butterfly so much that I used the same technique to make a different butterfly. This time, I chose the Eastern tiger swallowtail. It is the state insect of Virginia, the state butterfly of Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and both the state butterfly and mascot of Alabama. Affiliate links below. 

Wax-Resist Swallowtail Butterfly

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• crayons
• black paint
• microtip scissors
• colored pencil

Steps: 

Because I wanted my Eastern tiger swallowtail to be accurate, I printed out a picture first at the size I wanted my finished project to be. Then I used the window to trace the butterfly onto watercolor paper. 

Next, I used yellow, orange, black, blue, and white crayons to color in the butterfly. Since this is a wax-resist project, press hard and leave a thick layer of wax where you want the paint to resist; color lightly in the areas where you want black to cover most of your crayon marks. 

Create a wash by mixing a few drops of black acrylic paint into some water. Brush the wash over the butterfly. The paint will resist the areas with crayon. When the paint is dry, cut out the butterfly. 

The wash dried a little lighter than I wanted, but it was an easy fix. I used a black colored pencil to darken the areas that needed to pop. Here you can see the difference between the right side that I've colored and the left side that has just the wash. 

Here is is with both sides colored. 

The Eastern tiger swallowtail is such a pretty butterfly! I'm really happy with how my project turned out. 

Wax-Resist Butterfly

It's been a really long time since I used black paint on a wax-resist project. I decided to utilize the technique to make a realistic butterfly craft. Mine is inspired by Colorado's state insect, the Colorado hairstreak butterfly. Affiliate links below. 

Wax-Resist Butterfly Craft

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• crayons
• black paint
• microtip scissors
• colored pencil

Steps: 

Because I was making my project based on a real butterfly and I wanted it to be as accurate as possible, I started by printing out a picture of the Colorado hairstreak. I used the window to trace the butterfly onto watercolor paper. 

The next step is using a variety of crayons to color in the butterfly. Layer the colors to get just what you want. Press hard and leave a thick layer of wax where you want the paint to resist; color lightly in the areas where you want black to cover most of the crayon marks. 

Create a wash by mixing a few drops of black paint into some water. Brush the wash over the butterfly. 

When the paint is dry, cut out the butterfly. Then, use a colored pencil to draw the veins on the butterfly's wings. Press hard - this will carve out some of the wax from the thick areas, providing a nice contrast. 

I'm really happy with how my Colorado hairstreak turned out. I may end up doing something similar with other butterfly species.

Craft Stick Pencil, Crayon, and Colored Pencil Back-to-School Craft

In celebration of back-to-school season, today's craft has students make a craft stick pencil, colored pencil, or crayon and use it to write advice on how to be successful during the new school year. It's a fun way to encourage kids to start the year off on the right foot. Back in my teaching days, I had my students write letters of advice at the end of the year for the students who would be sitting in their desks the following year. It was always a delight to see what they wrote. Affiliate links below. 

 

Craft Stick Pencil, Crayon, and Colored Pencil

Materials: 

• 10" craft sticks
• scissors
• sandpaper
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• Folk Art Metallic Silver
• pencil
• Sharpie

Steps: 

Use the scissors to trim the one end of each craft stick to make a rounded point. There two things to note: 

1. Cutting craft sticks generates sharp wood pieces that can potentially go flying. Teachers should prep the sticks ahead of time rather than having students do this step in class. 
2. It is easiest to cut if you put the craft stick all the way in toward the fulcrum of the scissors.

You can cut the other end of the craft stick straight across if you wish. I did that for my colored pencil and crayon but left the pencil with a rounded end. Totally up to you. When you are done cutting, sand the craft sticks so there are no rough edges. 

Paint the craft sticks. I started by painting the wood part of the pencil and colored pencil, but in retrospect that seems like an unnecessary step since the craft stick is already wood. So I'd skip that. I used green for the body and tip of my colored pencil. For my crayon, I used orange for the ends, then mixed in a little bit of coral to lighten the paint to make the wrapper. For my pencil, I painted the eraser pink, the body yellow, and the tip dark grey, then added the silver paint. 

When the paint was dry, I used a pencil to subtly define the edges between colors. Then I drew parallel lines on the silver paint to mimic the texture of the ferrule. Finally, I used the Sharpie to add the tips for being successful in school. 

Maybe it's just me, but I think it would be fun (if impractical) to tape a real pencil to the back and use this for writing.  

I really enjoyed making this craft, even though my back-to-school days are behind me. I wish all of the students reading this a successful and enjoyable school year. Ask questions! Study for tests! And do your homework!

Crayon Melt State Fruits: Pear, Peach, Strawberry, Watermelon, and Tomato

It's been almost four years since I've pulled out the warming tray to do a crayon melt project. I'm surprised it's been that long, since it's one of my favorite techniques. I love the painterly effect it gives on these, each of which is an official state fruit.  

Pears are the state fruit of Oregon. 

Peaches are the state fruit of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. (Technically, peaches are Alabama's state tree fruit.)

Strawberries are the state fruit of Delaware, Louisiana, North Carolina (technically, the state red berry), and Oklahoma.

Tomatoes are the state fruit of Arkansas, Ohio, and Tennessee.

OK, I lied. Watermelon is not a state fruit. It is the state vegetable of Oklahoma. If you think a tomato should be considered a vegetable and watermelon a fruit, don't take it up with me. Botanically, tomatoes are fruit and so are watermelons, but Oklahoma has valid arguments for considering watermelon a vegetable. 

I didn't make crayon melts of all of the state fruits. Others include oranges, apples, huckleberries, blackberries, plums, blueberries, grapes, cranberries, chokecherries, grapefruit, cherries, and pawpaws. Feel free to make those, or anything else, using the technique below. The materials list includes affiliate links. 

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Crayon Melt State Fruits

Materials:

• warming tray
• white paper
• crayons
• microtip scissors
• craft glue

Steps:

Plug in the warming tray. and put a sheet of paper on top. Scraps are perfectly ok. Use crayons to color in the fruits you'll be making. You can blend and layer colors as much as you want. 

I recommend removing the wrappers from the crayons and laying them on their sides for faster, more even coverage. When you do that, you're going to get wax that transfers to the crayon, but that's not a problem. Here you can see that I put the white crayon into an area I'd colored dark green, which blended and transferred to the crayon. To clean it off, just color on a clean area of paper. 

You have two choices when adding details to your project. For the watermelon seeds, I just dotted black crayon directly onto the hot red wax. Since the black shows up really well on red, this is a good option. 

If I'd tried to add the yellow strawberry seeds on top of the red wax while it was hot, they would have blended in too much. Instead, I removed the strawberry, let it cool completely, cut out my shape, then returned it to the warming tray for just long enough to warm up. Then I was able dot on little bits of yellow. 

Don't forget to color the stems and leaves that you'll be using on your fruits. When you've colored everything, unplug the warming tray and let the wax set. Then cut out the shapes using scissors. Glue the leaves and stems to the appropriate fruit. Have fun!

Coloring with Terrible Crayons

I almost never use crayons for artwork anymore, despite having a good-sized collection of them. Last year, I pared down my giant crayon stash and got rid of all of the terrible ones. For as rarely as I use crayons and for as many Crayolas as I own, I don't need what are essentially wickless candles pretending to be art supplies.

I am more of a crafter than an artist, but I'm increasingly realizing that a person will never improve much as an artist if they keep using low-quality art supplies. That said, there are times when you're stuck with using low-quality art supplies. I was recently at an event that had coloring pages and "crayons" (sticks of wax with very little pigment) for the kids. Since there was no rule that you had to be a kid to color, I took some. (My philosophy is that since there's no reason I can't be a Junior Ranger at age 50, there shouldn't be any age-related prohibition on coloring either.) 

My box of "crayons" had six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. No black, brown, or white, unfortunately. I did my best to use varying amounts of pressure to create shades and the illusion of shadows. When blending colors didn't work, I layered them after using my fingernail to scrape off the bits of wax the first layer left behind. 

It's no masterpiece. If I'd used Crayola crayons (or better yet, colored pencils) on higher quality paper, my resulting artwork would look a lot better. But it's not terrible, either. Of course, I know there are artists with a lot more skill than I have who could have made something much better with the same materials I did use. The best results come from the combination of practice and high-quality materials.

If you find your skills are not progressing despite practice, it might be time to invest in better quality stuff. You don't need to jump from all the way from restaurant freebies to professional-grade, but it might be worth getting something toward the higher end. My favorite place to get good quality art supplies is Blick. Everything they sell is decent, and you can find good options no matter what your price point is. 

California Sea Lion Watercolor, Adapted from "Draw, Paint, Sparkle"

I've been following Patty Palmer's blog, Deep Space Sparkle, for years. Her kid-friendly art tutorials are wonderful. I finally got a chance to check out her book, Draw, Paint, Sparkle (affiliate link here and below) and it is just as fabulous as I expected. 

The first part of the book talks about Patty's approach to art, the materials she recommends for use with children, and the value of holding art shows that feature children's work. The second part of the book has instructions to make 25 inspiring projects. They are divided into three categories: Beginnings, Inspired by the Masters, and Inspired by Nature. I chose her Watercolor Seal project to make, but gave it my own twist. While her project uses pastels and liquid watercolor to paint a seal, I used crayons and pan watercolors to make a California sea lion.  

I'm a big fan of sea lions. We see them almost every time we go to San Francisco. They're playful, intelligent... and noisy! You can tell that I've painted a sea lion (rather than a seal) because of the visible ear flaps. You can also tell that I've painted either an adult female or a juvenile, as they are slim and tan in color. Adult males are larger and darker in color.  

California Sea Lion Watercolor

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• crayons
• watercolor paint (I use this travel set even when I'm not traveling)

Steps: 

Use a black crayon to draw two eyes near the middle of the page. Add a nose and a mouth, then draw an upside down U to make the head. Add freckles, whiskers, and ear flaps (just noticed I took the photo below before drawing the ear flaps). 

With the blue crayon, draw a horizon line. Stop when you get to the seal lion, lift the crayon, and resume on the other side of the head. Draw lines for waves beneath the horizon line. 

Use the green (or golden) crayon to draw gentle hills in the background. 

Paint the sea lion brown. The crayon lines should help keep the paint from spreading into the other sections.  

Paint the sky next; this will give the sea lion a few moments to dry. Paint the ocean, then the hills. California's hills are a sage green during the winter and golden during the summer. My hills are green, so this is a wintertime painting. 

Like I said, this is just one of 25 fabulous projects in the book Draw, Paint, Sparkle. I definitely recommend it for kids or for the parents/teachers who do art with kids!

Crayons: The Problem with Being the Best

As I was hunting for any stray colored pencils that might be hiding throughout the house, I decided to reorganize our huge collection of crayons. ("Because why not start a big, messy project when you're literally in the middle of doing something else!" I always say.) 

I'm not kidding when I say we have a huge collection of crayons. Back in 1995 when I started teaching, I had a small collection of crayons - a few small sets, plus the big set with the built-in sharpener. I kept one set at home, but dumped the rest into a crayon bin for the classroom. The school issued every student a box of crayons each year. Most kids kept their crayons in good shape all year long, but for the 3 or 4 kids who lost them or otherwise needed more, they could take what they needed from the bin. At the end of the year, I told them they could take home their crayons or dump them into my bin. Most dumped them into the bin, knowing they'd get fresh crayons when the new school year started.... one week later. (For my first few years as a teacher, our school was four-track year-round. My section started in August and ended in July, with September, January, and May off. When school ended in July, we had one week off before the new school year started in August. Our school eventually switched to a modified traditional schedule, but almost everyone still dumped their old crayons in the bin.)

We did a lot of crayon art in the classroom, but still the collection grew. There were kids who dumped crayons they didn't use at home into the bin. Eventually, one large bin became two. 

When Trevor was born and I moved out of my classroom, I left one bin behind and took one home. Over the years, more crayons have come into the house as gifts, manufacturer samples, party favors, and with kids' menus. All that to say, we have a huge collection of crayons. 

Now, a question. At the top of this post is a photo of eleven blue crayons. What brands do you remember seeing? 

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Chances are, you remember seeing Crayola (or guessed correctly that it was among the eleven). In fact, two of the eleven crayons are Crayola. They're from different eras, so the logos differ a bit. You might also remember seeing Prang or Cra-Z-Art, as there is one of each. But I guarantee that's all you saw. Why? Go back and look at the photo. 

The remaining seven crayons are not branded. Instead, they have the word Crayon(s) in fonts that are intended, in varying degrees, to fool you into thinking they're Crayola. Distinctive Crayola font? Check. Black oval around the text? Check. Black bands at the ends of the wrappers? Check and check. 

I chose the four blue crayons whose branding were most obvious Crayola rip-offs and put them to a color test. The results speak for themselves. 

The problem with being the best is that everyone else wants to be like you. Some manufacturers do that through hard work, developing their own superior products. Others do it by pretending to be the best only long enough to fool people into thinking they are getting a great bargain on a great product. You couldn't complain to these manufacturers if you wanted to, because there is no manufacturer information available. 

This is a problem beyond just crayons. In the craft industry, it is a major issue with pricier items, like metal dies or clear acrylic stamps. The reputable brands produce high-quality items with popular designs, then unethical manufacturers swoop in and put those designs on their own low-quality materials and sell them for a fraction of the cost. And the consumer who thought they were getting a bargain has something that breaks or otherwise doesn't work like the name-brand product. Know what you're buying, and know who you are hurting when you buy a knockoff. Chances are, you're also ultimately hurting yourself. 

Splatter Paint Fall Trees

After sharing so many splatter-painting backgrounds, it's time for a splatter-painted foreground. Rather than the thumb-across-toothbrush technique, I used a different method to achieve the dots and drips. It was so much fun!

Splatter Paint Fall Trees

Materials:

• watercolor paper
• crayons (brown, black)
• acrylic paint (blue, orange, yellow, red-brown)
• two paintbrushes

Steps:

Use crayons to draw bare trees on the watercolor paper. I drew four trees, each with plenty of branches and twigs, then added a bit of shadow with the black crayon. 

Thin the blue paint and use it to create a wash of color on the entire paper. These bits of sky will show through between the leaves of the tree. Let the paint dry. 

Put the painting into a cardboard box. I have a designated box I use to contain the mess when splattering, misting, dripping, and spraying. Hold one paintbrush in each hand. Dip one paintbrush into the red-brown paint, then tap it on the handle of the second paintbrush. This will cause small flicks of paint to splatter down. Experiment with the quantity of paint on the first brush, where you tap on the second brush, and how far from the paper you hold the brushes to get different sizes of splatters. Concentrate the splatters along the base of the trees and in the branches, leaving the space along the middle of the trunks and above the branches relatively unsplattered. You may need to rotate the paper to accomplish this. 

Without cleaning your brush, switch to orange paint and use the same technique to add splatters. Switch to yellow, building up the layers. When you have a good amount of splatters in the two main sections of the painting, use a pouncing motion to fill in any gaps between the leaves on the ground. With the same pouncing motion, do the same to add leaves to bare branches (if desired). 

It's up to you how many leaves you want on your finished artwork. I kept going until I liked how the trees looked. 

This really is a ton of fun to do. There's something very satisfying about seeing drips of paint transform into leaves. 

Fall Tree with Tissue Paper Leaves

The calendar says that fall is coming soon, but here in the Bay Area our leaves won't be falling for another 2 or 3 months. All the more reason to embrace fall colors via crafting! 

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Fall Tree with Tissue Paper Leaves

Materials:

• watercolor paper
• crayons (brown, black)
• watercolor paint (blue)
• tissue paper (red, orange, yellow, green)
• scissors
• glue

Steps:

Use crayons to draw a tree on the watercolor paper. Add plenty of branches and twigs. 

Add a wash of blue watercolor over the entire paper. The wax of the crayons will resist the paint; dab gently with a paper towel if any droplets remain. Let the paint dry completely. 

Use scissors to cut the tissue paper into tiny bits. I cut a few squares from each color, layered them, and then hacked at them randomly with the scissors. Dot glue onto the branches of the tree where leaves would be. Sprinkle the tissue paper bits onto the branches. Repeat until all the branches are covered. Lift the paper vertically to allow any pieces that are not attached to fall. 

Repeat the steps of cutting tissue paper into bits, dotting the paper with glue, and sprinkling the tissue paper onto the glue, except this time do not include any green tissue paper. (Green leaves wouldn't have fallen yet. I thought of this a little late, so you can see hints of green behind the fallen leaves. I'm pretending its grass.)

This project was really fun to make and took a lot less time than I'd originally expected. It's a great way to reuse ripped or wrinkled tissue paper. Give it a try!