Butterfly Suncatchers

Broken crayons, broken crayons...what is a mom to do? Last time we made beautiful stained glass and our own crayons. This time we made a butterfly sun catcher!

For this craft you will need:

• Crayons (broken, abused, or even new)
• Wax Paper
• Newspaper
• Iron and ironing board
• Thin string (like fishing string or beading string)
• Dowel rods or hangers
• Hot glue, hot glue gun
• Needle, optional

Directions:

1. Put down a piece of newspaper and then lay down a piece of wax paper on top of it.

2. Shave or grate pieces of crayon onto the 
    wax paper. (Note: the smaller amount of 
    crayon shavings, the more transparent 
    the sun catchers will be. Also, spread 
    out the colors. Otherwise, it will turn to 
    brown or black once the crayon melt.)

3. Cover shavings with another piece of wax paper, 
    and then newspaper. (The 
    newspaper helps keep the melted crayon 
    off of your iron.)

4. Quickly iron the newspaper (dry heat, no steam for just a second or two).

5. Allow to cool. 

6. Hot glue the dowel rods together in a X. Optional: Wrap a ribbon around the 
    center to give it a more finished look.

7. Cut butterfly shapes from the colored wax paper. If you're like me and can't cut free form shapes well, 
    I have two stencils below.

8. Poke a whole 
    through the 
    butterfly and insert 
    the string. (I threaded
    the needle first and 
    poked the hole and 
    threaded the string 
    through.)

9. Tie off the string 
    close to the butterfly. 

10. Tie the other end of string to dowel rods.

11. Place the butterflies at different heights and spaces around the dowel rods.

12. Finally, tie a string around the middle of the dowel rod X to hang from the ceiling, etc.