I saw a 150 box of crayola crayons on sale and bought them recently. Now, I have no immediate plans for them, despite thinking about this a lot, so I've just been admiring them and drawing some odd pictures. I love the variety in colors, which is something I'm not too keen on with pens (since you can't really write exams or take notes with neon yellow or white!), and it's kind of interesting how some colors I hated as a kid I really like now. there was a mild tragedy recently when my boyfriend knocked the box off the table and some of the crayons broke, but I melted them together again. I'm tempted to see how long it would take to use up the whole box, but I don't know how I could even try to achieve that in an interesting way.

do you have crayons and what do you do with them? do you have neat crayon stories?

I have a box of 24. I bought my lovely wife a box of 96 not too long ago. She wanted them to color with. Just a whim, I think. I like them for the colors. I don't do anything with them except make a chart of the colors.

One thing that you could do with them is to buy a mounted canvas or 2 and 'paint' on them with wax. Lay the canvas flat on the table or floor (better put it on top of some spread out news paper) then take the crayon (sans the paper) and take a lighter (a small butane torch like you can buy in a hardware store or, at one time, Radio Shack would be better because it would direct a flame from one side, not from beneath) and melt drops of wax onto the canvas. You could vary your technique by slinging (gently) the wax onto the canvas or shaking the crayon in order to scatter the drops or make smaller drops.

Once you have covered the canvas as much as you wish you may have to spray it with a clear or satin varnish or lacquer. You could also try reheating the wax from beneath the canvas to get the wax to soak into the canvas. Have someone hold the canvas up while you run a hot iron over the back side of the canvas. Just and Idea.

I have some colored pencils. I have some new ones, a bl ox of 24 and a box of 50, both Crayola, that I haven't used yet. I also ran across my old unused box of 48 Breol colored pencils. I'd forgotten all about them! Some where in the depths of our belongings are my used colored pencils.

Years ago I worked for a toll booth on a major Florida toll road. When I was put on night shift I had a bit of time on my hands so I wrote my lovely wife letters about what was going on at the plaza and other such newly wed stuff. I also took to drawing her little pictures of things. I had a series of odd looking flying machine, a bunch of different roses, some balloons, some bubbles and finally something I called a 'snork bubble - a cross between the snorks cartoon characters and a bubble. I used colored pencils to color them with. I got to be a fair colorer.

I always wanter to buy the entire line of Prismacolor colored pencils. There used to be a shop in a nearby town that sold them for a buck each but I never had enough money to buy more than a few replacement colors at a time. One of the local office supply stores used to carry the full boxed set, but again, no money for colored pencils.

While at the plaza I did some other 'art work'. We used rolls of receipt paper that were about 8 inches across with about a 3 inch core. I began to use Sharpies then later cheap markers (the sides of the rolls were uneven and hard on marker tips) to draw on the side of the rolls. Generally I'd divide the area up into 8 pie shaped areas an do a repeating pattern, sometimes abstract, sometime flowers, what have you. I don't know how many rolls I did (both sides) but it was a lot. I used to keep them in the trunk of my car because I didn't want them destroyed. But I knew that i had to give them up so I had the best photo copied and gave them all back to the plaza where they were eventually all used up. Sad, very sad. :cry:

Now I'll bet that was more than you ever wanted to know about The Old Geezer. 8)

very nice idea with the flame and canvas, like jackson pollock with wax!
also the letters to your wife is sweet! I hope you still write her some...

I'm glad that you like the idea. I hope that you will follow through on it and post a few pis of your art work.

I don't write my lovely wife daily letters any more. At the time we were working different shifts, me nights and her days, so we were like two ships passing in the night. It was my way of letting her know what was going on in my work life. Now that I am unemployed and seeking SS disability we get to spend a lot more time together. Right now she is working nights so I am keeping her schedule. That way we can maximize our time together.

I have written her an "encouragement" letter, telling her how much I love her. I'm contemplating writing one and telling her how proud of her that I am.

Speaking of my lovely wife, she just got home. It's beddy-bye time. :D

While Crayola is certainly a good choice for occasional coloring, I would recommend trying out the Swiss Caran D'Ache Neocolor I and II to experience the smoothest most saturated color lay down obtainable with a wax crayon format. The Neocolor II have the added advantage that they can be blended with a waterbrush and that stray marks are easy to clean with a wet rag. The crayons resist breakage, for they are stronger than conventional crayons. Neocolor feels smoother and creamier than the comparable drier Pentel Aquash crayons.

Interesting. I'll have to check them out. Thanks. :D