DIY Floral Acrylic Tray with Crayons

Would you believe you can make a beautiful and stylish tray with some crayons, wax paper, and an inexpensive acrylic frame? It’s true! It’s super easy and fun to make, and I will walk you through every little step of this crayon craft.

Guess what!? It’s National Crayon Day, and we are celebrating in style with a fun yet surprisingly sophisticated crayon project! Crayons might not be the first thing you think of when you see this pretty floral acrylic tray, but they are the essential ingredient to creating these beautiful variegated flowers.

There is something just magical about a new box of crayons, and I was so happy to get to play with these pretty colors. Are you ready to break out those crayons and get making? Let’s do this!

Supplies needed to make your own acrylic try crayon craft:

• Crayons
• Wax Paper
• Iron
• Scissors, Silhouette Cameo, or Die Cutting Machine
• Acrylic Box Frame
• Craft Knife
• Gloss Decoupage
• Mod Podge Dimensional Magic

Step One. Crayon Shavings.

First we will start off by creating crayon shavings. You will need a pencil sharpener for this or you can just pull the crayon sharpener out of the box like I did. 😉 Scatter shavings evenly over one half of a piece of wax paper. I stuck to a pink, yellow, orange, and red color palette, but feel free to use whatever colors you like.

Step Two. Fold & Iron.

Fold the piece of wax paper in half, and fold up each open edge of the wax paper to make a little pouch holding the crayon shavings inside.

Place the wax paper in between two piece of paper to protect your ironing surface and your iron, then iron over the paper to melt the wax. You will need only a few seconds to melt it all.

Repeat this process to create many beautiful sheets of colorful waxed paper.

Step Three. Cut Out Flowers.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out some simple flower shapes, but you could absolutely just use a pair of scissors. To cut the wax paper sheets with the Cameo, I used the blade at a 3, speed set to 2, and the depth set to 15.

I was so happy with the way these pretty flowers turned out. You could use these in so many ways – strung on a garland, hung in a window, added to scrapbook pages or cards – the possibilities are endless! I decided to use them to create my pretty floral tray.

Step Four. Place Flowers in Tray.

I pulled the backing out of my acrylic box frame and set up my arrangement. I used a craft knife to trim my flowers where they hit the edge of the frame.

Next, you will need to use a brush and some gloss decoupage to glue your flowers in place and seal them down flat onto the bottom of the frame.

Step Five. Add Dimensional Magic.

If you wanted, you could just seal this whole crayon craft with a coat or two of mod podge and be done with it, but I decided to finish it off with a thin coat of Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, which creates a resin-like effect and gives the whole tray a nice glossy finish. It took me about a bottle and a half to get a nice layer across the bottom of the tray.

Pop any bubbles that form before they dry, and then set your crayon craft try aside to dry for at least three hours. When it is all dry, your tray is ready to use!

That’s it for today, friends! Now go celebrate National Crayon Day with some coloring and crafting! 🙂

Alexis

Alexis Middleton is a lifelong crafter/DIYer and blogger at Persia Lou. She started crafting at a young age. As a girl, she spent summers with her grandmother crocheting baby doll afghans, making coasters out of plastic canvas and yarn, and canning apricot jam. Today, Alexis spends a lot of time dreaming up and working on projects for her family’s home. She loves mixing traditional crafting techniques with a more modern aesthetic.