crayon transfer closeup

Crayon Transfer Technique

fishies

HELLO! If you’ve found me from my video of this technique, you’ll note I wasn’t using Crayolas in the video. These are the crayons I used there, and they are a bit brighter and a bit smoother than the Crayolas. Love ’em.

Crayons are something most households with small kids have more of than maybe anything else. In fact, it’s normal to wonder if there are more crayons in the entire world than anything else. The answer would be yes.

That’s why there are so many awesome, fun projects out there for alternative ways to use crayons, because the crayon epidemic got so out of hand, parents needed to find ways to get rid of massive amounts of crayons at one time.

I’ve done a crayon painting art project, and it was a huge hit, but I wanted to try my hand at something different this time, so I went in search of other crayon techniques and found this one.

They almost look like reverse scratchboard, if that makes sense.

Here’s the skinny:

Use your crayons to make a pattern or blobs or pretty much anything on a piece of paper. The key here is to press hard to get a thick layer of waxy color down on the paper. (Tip: you will get the best results if you use thinner paper like copy paper.)

I did rainbow stripes and blobs, and the rainbow stripes are definitely the way to go. If you make sure the stripes aren’t too wide, you’ll get a good range of colors going on.

crayon transfer surfaces

Once your paper is covered, you can flip your crayon paper so it is face-down over a piece of blank paper. I suggest first brushing off the random wax bits that tend to accumulate on the crayon surface first…

crayon transfer from Tiny Rotten Peanuts

Using a pencil or ball point pen, draw (press pretty firmly, but try not to break your little fingers) whatever you want to. When you are finished, lift your crayon paper off to reveal the magic.

I was inspired by some pinning I had done the day before, and wanted to draw a whole ton of fishies, so that I did.

Blub

Blub

Blub

crayon transfer drawing from Tiny Rotten Peanuts

Look! It even looks cool on the crayon paper:

crayon transfer closeup

Next up, I drew over some of Beckett’s drawings to see how they would turn out on the blobby crayon background. They sucked and I should have left his drawings alone. I learned that with this technique, you need to get more detail and colored-in areas instead of just lines.

But! This is what happens when you make art- you experiment and try different things and play around (all the same thing, written in three different ways because I’m so wordy.) Seriously, though- isn’t this the best part of art-making?

Crayon transfer kid drawings

So obviously I drew a fork and a cat-like creature next.

crayon transfer technique - Tiny Rotten Peanuts

I highly recommend this. It’s fun, and it’s something you can do with your kids or by yourself when you are just sitting around looking for an easy art project to do. One of the best parts of this projects is how long it takes to fill the papers with crayon. As you are working, your mind will wander, your breathing will slow down, and everything will be right with the world.

I made an intro video for this technique if you’d like to get a better idea of how to do it:

Now, go feast your eyeballs on these other crayon ideas, from some amazing, creative bloggers.

Melted Crayon Art with a Glue Gun from Learn, Play, Imagine

Art for Kids Using Crayons and Sandpaper from Buggy and Buddy

Crayon Resist Photo Display from Twodaloo

Crayon Art Sculpture from Meri Cherry

Crayon Painting from Babble Dabble Do

Melted Crayon Art for Easter from Blog Me Mom


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19 responses to “Crayon Transfer Technique”

  1. Crystal Foth Avatar

    Just lovely! I haven’t done this for so long – I think it’s time again. What great photos! Time to bust out the Crayolas! Thanks for sharing.

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      Thanks Crystal! I was a little excited to find this technique. Yep, bust out the crayons and go to town.

  2. Stephanie Haass Avatar
    Stephanie Haass

    OOOOH! I love this idea! And I also love the fishies on the crayon paper- the more color the better I say!

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      More fish! More fish! This was fun- your kids’ll love it at some point….

  3. Emma Craig Avatar
    Emma Craig

    This is beautiful! I love this idea!

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      Thanks Emma! Crayons are awesome.

  4. Ana Dziengel Avatar
    Ana Dziengel

    This is sooooo cool! And I love how the artwork looks great on both the transfer and the colored sheet!

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      Thanks, Ana! It’s fun to get little art surprises like that.

  5. The Messy Artist Avatar

    Great project! Our kids would love this.

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      I’m so glad! I’m kind of getting a hankering to do another one already.

  6. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    LOVE THIS!!! I so can not wait to try this with my boyz!!! It’s spring break this week so we will def be doing this a lot, seems like it will be a favorite anyway 😉

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      I’m so glad you’re going to do this project! It’s absolutely fun.

  7. Robin Hunt Avatar
    Robin Hunt

    This is so cool. I have a 12 year old and she is going to love doing this during spring break. Looking forward to more post from you.

  8. Trina Halsey Avatar
    Trina Halsey

    What a great idea to do with my muppets on a rainy day! LOVE it!!

  9. BusyMomma Avatar

    Great instructions Jeanette! My Mom had a home daycare while I grew up. I did cool stuff BEFORE she took the classes to learn even more cool stuff. I can remember being in my teens and doing cool art projects with the little kids, but I’m artsy-fartsy like that too lol

    Best thing is this takes no expensive or extra art supplies!

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      Ha! Thanks Jeanine, I hope you try this out.

  10. Greg Bishop Avatar
    Greg Bishop

    This is a great idea. I needed to paint some tiny things in wax and then remove it after painting the rest of the surface. (Keycaps). I’m totally going to try this. It’s so cleaver using a pencil and indirectly drawing what you want.

    1. Jeanette Nyberg Avatar

      Oh, I’ll be interested to hear how it comes out- I really love this technique and since you left this comment, maybe we’ll play around with it a bit tonight!

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