Use some crayon shavings and wax paper to make suncatchers in just about any shape you can think of. Perfect craft for kids any time of year!
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I’m always looking for easy crafts for kids, and I especially love crafts where you can most likely find all the materials you need right at home. These suncatchers made from crayon shavings are simple and so much fun! (And they’re a great way to use up some old crayons you might have!) This post contains affiliate links.
Materials for Crayon Shaving Suncatchers
- crayons
- hand grater or pencil sharpener
- wax paper
- iron
- scissors
- old newspaper
- construction paper & glue (optional)
How to Make Suncatchers Using Crayons
1. First you’ll need to make some crayon shavings. I gathered up some stray crayons we had around the house and got out our hand grater. Then I just peeled back the paper and grated. The fatter crayons were definitely much easier to grate, but the regular sized crayons worked too. (Just be careful not to grate your fingers! I still have a scar from accidentally grating my knuckle a few years ago when I was making dinner. This step should definitely NOT be done by a child.)
Edited to add: A reader recommended using a crayon sharpener to grate the crayons. Love that idea!
2. Gather all your shavings up into one place that’s easily accessible to the kids. We put ours on a large plate right in the center of our kitchen table.
3. Cut some wax paper into the size and shape you want. We started off with some simple squares.
4. Place one piece of the cut wax paper onto an old piece of newspaper and sprinkle some shavings on top of it. Then place a second piece of wax paper on top.
5. Turn on your iron and set it on a low setting (one without steam). Once it’s warmed you’re ready to melt the crayon shavings. Make sure your wax paper and crayon shaving stack is still on top of an old newspaper or thin stack of scrap paper. (There’s a good chance the crayon will melt out of the sides and you don’t want to ruin your table.)
Then place another sheet of newspaper or scrap paper on top of your wax paper and crayon shaving ‘sandwich’. This will protect your iron from getting melted crayon on it. Now slowly iron the paper. Keep checking every few seconds to see if your crayon shavings have completely melted. Once they have, set your project aside to cool and dry.
6. Once it’s dry, you can trim it into any shape you’d like. We cut ours into different sized hearts!
7. You can also create some frames with construction paper and glue the sun catcher inside.
Open your frame and put glue on both sides.
Stick your cooled wax paper onto one side.
Close the frame and press the edges down.
Trim off the wax paper that’s sticking out the sides.
If you’d like to have string on your finished sun catcher for hanging, you can place one end of the string in between the two sheets of wax paper before you iron it. Once it’s ironed and cooled, the string will be attached.
The kids LOVED seeing how their melted crayon shavings turned out!
Tips
– Be really careful when doing crafts with a hot iron. I made sure Theo was in his highchair where he couldn’t accidentally grab the iron or trip over the cord.
– Grating the crayons wasn’t too hard, but I definitely wouldn’t let the kids do it. I made sure to grate the crayons and put the grater away before the I called the kids in to begin the craft.
– Let the kids choose where to hang their sun catchers or even allow them to hang them up on their own if they are able to. It really gives children a sense of independence and pride when they can make decisions such as where to display their creations.
This is definitely a project worth trying. The kids really loved it and are excited to do it again!
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Veens says
June 17, 2013 at 10:25 amIt is Gorgeous. I have been thinking about trying this really. Adding to our to-do list 🙂
Chelsey says
June 17, 2013 at 11:57 pmThank you! The kids and I had a lot of fun with it!
Kelli says
January 19, 2017 at 8:39 pmWe do not have any children, but I’m quite an artist myself and your crafting idea sounds like a whole lot of fun for a friend and I to do to decorate our houses up for Valentine’s Day. I used to have so much fun with wax paper and shaved crayons when I was a kid. What an awesome idea, thank you and God bless you.
Lots Of Love All Around,
Kelli
Bryony says
June 18, 2013 at 1:24 amHi,
I love how your crayon sun catchers turned out!
I did try this activity but it did not work out as successfully- the crayon did not stick to the baking paper.. Is there a difference between baking and “wax paper”?
I’m wondering how I could use the melted wax now; ..? Any hints on how I could still use the melted crayon to result in a sun catcher?..
did you use specific glue to stick the frames to the paper?
Thank you and look forward to any advice you have :))
Lots of love
xxxxxxx
Chelsey says
June 18, 2013 at 9:44 amI’m so glad you’ve tried out the sun catchers! Sorry you’ve run into some difficulty though. You definitely need to use wax paper. The wax on the paper also melts along with the crayon to help seal everything. I hope you’ll give it another try! You could always save the melted wax to use with wax paper when you try again, or I bet it would also work to make crayons! Here’s a nice tutorial from one of my favorite blogs showing how to make crayons: Rainbow Crayons. Let me know how it goes if you get a chance, and thank you so much for giving feedback. It will help others who do the project as well!
Chelsey says
June 18, 2013 at 9:49 amWhoops~ forgot about the glue! We just used regular old Elmer’s Glue for the frames!
Emma @sciencesparks says
June 18, 2013 at 6:14 amThey are lovely! What a great idea!
Ann @ My Nearest and Dearest says
June 18, 2013 at 8:44 amThese are so pretty! And what a great way to use up all the random bits of crayons most of us have.
Bryony says
June 18, 2013 at 5:27 pmThank you 🙂
I will try again after sourcing “wax” paper 😉
(I ended up just sticking contact/sticky back plastic around the melted crayon so I could keep our creations this time :))
xxxxxxx
Rosa says
June 26, 2013 at 1:10 pmInstead of a hand grater – let your kids make their own crayon shavings by using a pencil sharpener. That’s what we did when we were kids and making those shavings was part of the fun 🙂
Chelsey says
June 28, 2013 at 2:07 pmOOh, now I just LOVE that idea, Rosa!!
Mary Catherine says
June 29, 2013 at 4:08 pmI just love this project! It turned out beautifully!! 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing it at Stress-Free Sunday!
Sasha Frugone says
July 5, 2013 at 8:07 amTry using a pencil sharpener instead of a grater…use die cuts on felt and heavy card stock…then you can have amazing shapes…
Chelsey says
July 15, 2013 at 10:42 pmGreat ideas, Sasha! Next time I definitely want to try letting the kids use the sharpener!
Patty says
October 6, 2013 at 10:18 amGreat ideas! will use with adults with special needs! THANK YOU! Patty
Anonymous says
December 22, 2013 at 2:18 ammy kids actually had the idea to use a pencil sharpener. it really worked!
I also used baking paper and it didn’t work. I assumed that was wax paper. after it dried, the paper separated from the crayons and the melted crayons started to crack. what exactly is wax paper? where do you get it?
Chelsey says
December 22, 2013 at 10:14 amI love the pencil sharpener idea! Will remember that for next time for sure. Wax paper is like baking paper, but actually covered in a thin layer of wax. I buy some made by Reynolds at our local Target. It’s right near the foil and plastic wrap. Here’s an affiliate link to some wax paper on Amazon. Hope you’ll give it another try! 🙂
Anonymous says
December 24, 2013 at 1:20 amthanks! will do
Jill Taylor says
July 5, 2015 at 8:47 amI love this idea and want to use it for vbs, but i am a little confused. are all of your hearts hanging in the window or are they stuck to the window with some kind of magic force field???
Chelsey says
July 5, 2015 at 9:38 amHi Jill~ No force field is being used! 😉 You can use some clear scotch tape rolled up or tiny bits of removable poster putty.
kelly says
April 12, 2016 at 8:12 amGrating crayons is tedious work and they become very static and messy. I put different colors in quart size zipock bags leaving a tiny corner open for air so bag does not pop. Take outside on the sidewalk or other flat surface and let the kids smash the crayons with a rubber mallet. Make sure you use rubber so you do not tear the bag. Keeping like colors together allows them to still decorate as they wish and you get different sizes and shapes. They are also already contained in their own sealed baggie for future use and storage. If kids are too young for the mallet they can watch. It’s always fun seeing the crayons smashed to bits and they start getting very excited about their craft.
Chelsey says
April 12, 2016 at 12:43 pmThis is a fabulous idea!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Wendy says
May 16, 2016 at 9:42 pmI think the baking paper everyone mentions is parchment paper, which is closer to freezer paper than wax paper. It’s designed to be non stick, so it makes sense that creations aren’t working. The bonus of this is that wax paper is cheaper then parchment paper, and you can usually find it at the dollar store.
megan brown says
August 17, 2018 at 10:58 ami’m wondering if this could be done on glass instead of wax paper….