Tania’s Valentine’s Day gift

Having a habit for accomplishing things late, I began on my Valentine’s day gift for Tania the day before Valentine’s day. The reason was because I thought we were exchanging gifts the following weekend. Little did I know we somehow mutually agreed to exchange gifts the weekend before.

I stole the idea from Reddit. It is a canvas with crayons melting onto a couple under an umbrella. Took much longer than the estimated 1.5 hours to complete. I worked on it a little each day. All the thanks goes to Ming Huang for helping me put the canvas together on day 1 (Monday). That was the day I bought 3 boxes of crayons (72 pieces) and a hot glue gun. I brought it all home and sketched the couple onto the canvas.

On day 2 I painted the canvas with black paint. It was a lengthy process, but very relaxing. After the paint dried I noticed some unevenly painted surfaces, but I couldn’t repaint it due to lack of paint. I also figured that once the crayons melt onto the canvas it will be hardly noticeable. I let let the canvas dry and arranged the crayons in the order I planned to stick them to the canvas. I then spent some time peeling the paper from the crayons. My mom had suggested that the lighter crayons be placed above the couple as a symbol of youth, and happiness. I’m glad I ended up agreeing with her. As you can see the left side of the canvas looks a bit dull with the darker colors of the spectrum. I spent the rest of the time trying to figure out how to stick the crayons onto the canvas. I originally tried using the hot-glue gun, but I found that the crayons did not stick well. I then thought I would buy some Krazy Glue and therefore waited till the next day to paste the crayons. I decided to practice melting some leftover crayons onto a cardboard calendar for practice.

The Krazy glue didn’t work as planned and I had to think fast since my days were running short. I decided to use Elmer’s Glue which worked perfectly. After sticking the crayons onto the surface I waited for them to dry to test how firm the bond was. Surprisingly it worked. I was a bit nervous that it will not bond since the crayons are nonporous. Day 3 was concluded and now it was on to the melting.

I came back home on Thursday after the the Brooklyn College game and began melting the crayons. I started from the left side of the canvas and moved my way to the right. After reading some suggestions online I managed to melt the crayons into layers. I figured that I would use the hot-glue to create a barrier between the black canvas and the couple (in order for the crayons not to melt onto the couple). I applied the glue and then moved my way into the brighter colors of the spectrum. Melting took about an hour. I moved the canvas into my room and glanced at it every so often before my dreams overtook me.

It is now Friday, and I am anxiously waiting to see her reaction as I present the gift. I hope she likes it as much as I like the one she gave to me. All the pictures in this ‘project’ were taken with the camera she gave me. I will sign the canvas with my initials and present it to her later in the day.

[She received the gift]

I’m pleased to say she was very thrilled to receive the piece. Not sure if that was because she wasn’t expecting it or whether she loved it so much. Either way I feel that my effort was well rewarded.