Melted Crayon Art

I've seen melted crayon art online before and I thought it was really cool, so I finally got around to making it.  I'm including a link to the original post I worked from in addition to my own, slightly modified directions.

Materials:
*Two 24-packs of crayons
*8 1/2 x 11 canvas
*Hot glue gun and glue
*Hair dryer
*Ribbon

Directions:
*Arrange crayons along the canvas in a color pattern you find pleasing.  You will not need to use all 48 crayons
*Using the hot glue gun, glue the crayons to the canvas, with the tips facing down.  You should end up with something like this:

*Cover your work area with newspaper to prevent melted wax from adhering to your area.  Lean the canvas against a wall
*Turn your hair dryer on high heat and aim at the middle of the crayons.  Run the heat over the crayons until they have melted to your liking.  Be careful, as some of the wax may splatter a little
*Once the crayons have melted as much as you wanted them to, let the art work sit until the wax has cooled
*Glue a piece of ribbon to the back of the canvas to serve as a hook from which you can hang the canvas

Photo Magnets

Materials:
*Small pictures
*Large clear flat backed glass marbles
*Scissors
*Pen
*Mod Podge
*Paintbrush
*Magnetic backing
*Strong adhesive

Directions:
*Place flat backed glass marble on top of your picture and move it around until you can see the portion of the picture that you want to see through the marble
*Trace around the marble
*Cut out the picture
*Using your paintbrush, spread a very thin layer of Mod Podge across the back of the marble
*Place the picture on the back of the marble.  Set aside to dry
*Once dry, glue a piece of magnetic backing to the back of the marble.  Even if you have self-adhering magnetic backing, it may not be strong enough to support the weight of the marble

If you have a magnetic photo frame . . .
*Pick up some smaller clear flat backed glass marbles.  Using the above procedure, create magnetic captions, images, and other decorations

Fireworks Earrings

Materials:
*22 headpins
*24 fake pearls of various colors
*2 ear wires
*Round nosed pliers
*Flat nosed pliers
*2 jump rings
*Krazy glue or other strong adhesive
*Wire cutters

Directions:
*Cut each head pin in half, keeping the half that contains the pin's "head"
*Slide a fake pearl onto each head pin
*Using pliers, curve wires slightly
*Create a loop at the top of each head pin and clamp onto a jump ring.  You should end up with 11 head pins on each jump ring
*Attach ear wires to jump rings
*Spread out the head pins around the jump ring and very carefully glue each one in place. Let dry
*Glue a pearl in the center of each earring covering the jump ring

Decorated Dream Journal

There is something nice about having a print journal.  Even if you prefer keeping your journal in digital form, you can always print out the pages and decorate them to create an artistic hard copy.  There are of course a plethora of ways someone could decorate a journal.  For my dream journal, I thought it would be neat to decorate the pages with symbols representing elements from my dream.

Materials:
*3 ring binder
*Sheet protectors
*Paper
*Computer and printer
*Markers or other decorative tools

Directions:
*Record your dreams in a word processing program on your computer.  Choose a font and color scheme that you find appealing
*Print pages from your dream journal
*Decorate the margins of the pages as you see fit
*Slide the pages into sheet protectors and secure the sheet protectors inside a 3 ring binder

Tips for remembering dreams:
*When you wake up from a dream, jot down some key elements from your dream.  I usually jot down only one or two words.  This will help you recall your dream when you write it down in the morning
*Write down your dream as soon as you get up in the morning.  The sooner you write down your dream, the better a chance you will have for remembering all of the details

Fuse Bead Decorative Bowls

Here's a craft my friend Meg directed me to.  I'm including a link to the original post I worked from in addition to my own, slightly modified directions.

Materials:
*Fuse beads
*Cooking spray
*Bowl (preferably one that is not very valuable to you)
*Cookie sheet

Directions:
*Preheat the oven to 400
*Spray the inside of the bowl with a generous amount of cooking spray
*Take a couple of handfuls of fuse beads and drop them into the bowl
*Smooth out the beads so that you have only one layer of beads.  They should just migrate up the sides of the bowl on their own if you press on a spot with multiple layers of beads
*Alternately, you can arrange beads in the bowl in a pattern, like I did with the tie dye bowl.  It may take a lot more time, but you can get some pretty neat results

*Place the bowl on a cooking sheet
*Pop in the oven for 10-15 min
*Take out of the oven and let cool
*Ideally, the fuse bead bowl should pop right out, but that's not what happened for me.  If you use a new bowl without any wear to the glaze and you use a lot of cooking spray you will probably have better results
*If the fuse beads do stick to the bowl, use a butter knife to peel it off the bowl
*These cute little bowls can serve many purposes as candy dishes, key holders, etc., and even wall art

Cracked Glass Vase

     Do you have a glass that has a small crack in it or one that you just don't use anymore, but don't want to ger rid of?  Turn it into a flower vase.

Materials:
*Glass
*Waterproof sealant (if using a glass with a crack in it)
*Stickers
*Ribbon
*All purpose adhesive
*Water resistant scrapbooking "paper"
*Scissors
*Mod podge
*Paintbrush
*Other embellishments

Directions:
*Spread waterproof sealant along the inside of the glass, covering the crack.  Let sealant dry
*Decorate the glass as you wish using stickers, paper, ribbon, and any other embellishments you would like to use

Publish Your Own Children's Book and Make Millions (Parody)

The first (and currently the only) printed copy of Bill the Sociopathic Flying Monkey.  If you send Brian and me $1,000,000, we will autograph this and send it to you.  This incredible deal is only available for a limited time and is exclusively offered to my loyal blog followers. 



     Brian and I finally finished and published our book, Bill the Sociopathic Flying Monkey.  It is available for purchase on amazon.com.  As a side note, Stephen Colbert, if you are reading this (which I'm sure you must be), feel free to shamelessly promote this book, as we dedicated it to you.  Now, without further ado, how to create your own children's book:

Materials:
*Extrodinarily eccentric person
*Legal waiver
*Talented artist
*Tools of "persuasion"
*Computer and printer
*Paper
*Report cover
*Pen
*Celebrity endorsement
*High school level understanding of English spelling and grammar (optional)

Directions:
*Ask extremely eccentric person (I know, I specified an extrodinarily eccentric person in the materials list, but an extremely eccentric person should suffice) to tell you a story.  If the story makes too much sense, find a different eccentric
*Make sure that this eccentric person signs a legal waiver granting you all rights to the ideas this person comes up with.  Alternately, you could do what I did and take the eccentric person on as a coauthor
*Write down the story that the eccentric person told you.  If you are unsure how to put the story into children's book format, look at other children's books for inspiration (preferably Bill the Flying Monkey)
*Find a talented (or at least semi-talented) artist.  "Persuade" this individual to draw illustrations for your story
*Scan the illustrations into your computer 
*Superimpose the text of the story over the illustrations
*Print a copy of your book
*Bind your book using a report cover.  This will make your book highly marketable
*Autograph the copy of your book and sell for $1,000,000
*Submit a copy of your book to an epublisher or print out more copies of your book
*Bribe a celebrity to endorse your book.  Brian and I are still working on this step (hint: Stephen Colbert)