The Kids of Integrity Challenge is finished!

Crosses of forgiveness

I had a tough choice to make the other day. I could clean the interior of my car (hadn’t had a vacuum and wipe-down all winter) or I could read over the Kids of Integrity Forgiveness lesson so we could start it after school. Hmmm. I thought about using the car as a greenhouse – just seed directly into the dust layer on the dash and park in the sun. We could get a nice head start on our tomatoes! I put that thought on hold and instead turned to the Parents’ Prayer, asking the Lord to forgive my stubborn, distracted heart.

Since our kids love crafts, the idea of starting with fun crosses from the Kids’ Corner was appealing. The tissue paper craft went to the top of my list when I remembered I still had different colours of shaved wax crayon left over from a Sunday school craft. So we did an alternate version of “stained glass” (see pictures).

1. I folded 20” of wax paper in half like a book, opened it again and drew a 9” x 6” cross on the inside leaf. (I sized it so I could still use standard card stock as a frame.)
2. It was very handy to have the wax already shaved because I recall that it took a lot of work initially. To shave our crayons, we used tiny pencil sharpeners. (Does anybody know an easier way to shave them?)
3. The kids then sprinkled the wax onto the cross shape in whatever pattern and colours they wanted. Tip: the shavings don’t have to be thick, but try for a fairly solid covering. The more colours you mix in one spot, the murkier the outcome.
4. We re-folded the wax paper to cover the shavings and carefully slid it onto a wooden cutting board. I covered it with a thin tea towel and ironed it on low to melt the wax. Here I encountered two problems. I discovered that even ten seconds too long under the iron really melts and spreads the wax, but ten seconds too little leaves the wax crumbly and falling out. Timing is everything – so keep peeking! The second problem may have stemmed from me being too thrifty. I used cheap crayons and cheap wax paper from the dollar store. Not sure how, but the wax actually bled through the wax paper onto my cutting board and tea towel. (Sigh.) I tried to fix that with the next cross by using a couple sheets of regular paper under the iron, but oily colour still came through. Any helpful tips from wise crafters out there?
5. Next we let the melted crayon cool, then trimmed the paper, leaving at least an inch or two of plain wax paper around the edge. At this point our “cross” looked more like a colourful blob. That’s why we framed! I cut a 9” x 6” cross out of the centre of two pieces of card stock. Then we taped and glued the wax paper in between the card-stock frames. Put it up against the light and – voila! – a work of art. A black frame seems to work best because even when held against light, it doesn’t reveal the unevenness of the melted crayon shape. In the last picture, you can see Jessica’s pink frame doesn’t quite hide the uneven silhouette.

Ben and Jess were so proud of their creations. And the timing was perfect . . . their crosses were a wonderful conversation piece for visitors during the Easter season!

Tags:

• Forgiveness