Use science + art to make Christmas cards with your kids with this crayon resist Christmas card activity that comes with free printable Christmas card templates!
It’s the perfect time to make crayon resist Christmas cards! The leaves are falling off of the trees and the days are getting shorter, which means it’s almost winter here in Wisconsin!
We are super pumped for Christmas this year because it’s the first year that this crazy mama hasn’t managed a multi-million dollar retail store with crazy work weeks in the 70+ hours range this time of year. Yikes right?!
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Needless to say that I’m pretty thankful to be home and back to doing work that I love and getting to see my kids all of the time even if it means that I do most of my work while bouncing a 10-month old on my lap!!
WHAT IS CRAYON RESIST ART?
Crayon resist art is all the rage on Pinterest. Art made with two materials that repel or resist each other is called Resist Art.
For our crayon resist art activity, we used a range of colored crayons instead of using the traditional white crayon method. Our goal was to create a visual texture with the wax from the crayons.
We love making fun projects with crayons, like our recycled crayon suncatchers, for example.
MATERIALS OFTEN USED TO MAKE RESIST ART
You can also make resist art with wax candles, tape, glue, rubber bands and more! We’ve also played with layers of paper to make a cute pumpkin painting for preschoolers and have made glue resist chalk pastel pumpkins and oil resist tessellation art that turned out pretty awesome!
Materials for Crayon Resist Art Christmas Cards
- Cardstock
- Crayons
- Watercolors
- Watercolors Brush Pens (my fav tool to use!)
- Sharpies Brush Tip Markers (optional)
- Oil pastels (optional)
- Chalk pastels (optional)
- Christmas card template (optional) You can find this great free download after the tutorial!
How to Make Crayon Resist Christmas Cards
My ultimate goal in creating these Crayon Resist art Christmas Cards with my kiddos was to create opportunities for texture within each image. Think of your card like it’s a 3D image.
You want some objects or pieces of a picture to stand out or appear closer than others and that’s where texture comes in. You can use colored crayons under watercolors to create neat patterns that add texture to your card.
Make sure to use only the bottom half of the page to draw your image, so you can fold your paper in half to make a card when you are finished.
We started our project by making a rice sock and warming it in the microwave. This ensured that we would get the best result from our melting wax crayons. You won’t be able to keep the sock, so find one you are willing to part with.
We tried different techniques with our wax Resist art, like outlining and completely coloring objects.
My girls think that the completely colored objects turned out great, but I am particularly fond of the outlined objects. It’s up to you what you want to do. Try both options and see what works best for you.
After outlining and coloring our objects with our melting crayons, we adding a different medium to our Cards. For most of the cards, we used watercolors that we applied with our favorite, super handy watercolors brush pens!
If you don’t have these already, what are you waiting for!? They make everything super easy to paint by controlling the amount of water and increasing your precision! I just love them!
On other cards, we got creative with using oil pastels, chalk pastels, and even Sharpie brushes with our wax resist Crayon art.
Free Christmas Card Templates
We made a few (okay…maybe more than a few since there are 12 of them!) fun card templates because we like to incorporate technology into our projects.
All you need to do with these cards is print with no margins and use the grey space for Crayon or wax Resist and the white space for watercolors or chalk pastels.
Fold the cards in half and voila! They are ready to be mailed after you fill out the inside of the card with your own personalized message.
Kid-Made Christmas Series
This post is part of the Kid-Made Christmas Series from Teach Me Mommy. I’m thrilled to be a part of this great holiday series that features Kid-Made cards, gifts, and ornaments.
Check out these great kid crafts from the Kid-Made Christmas series:
- DIY Santa Mason Jar Gift Idea from KimspiredDIY
- String Christmas Tree Cards from School Time Snippets
- Popsicle Stick Ornaments from Projects with Kids
Find more Christmas STEAM Activities!
Give the gift of Christmas STEAM this year with this STEAM Kids Christmas ebook filled with 25 days of holiday STEAM projects!
PIN THIS IMAGE TO SHARE THIS CHRISTMAS CRAFT FOR KIDS
Christmas STEAM
Find some more Christmas STEAM activities for kids!
Christmas Algorithm Art Unplugged Coding Activity
This Christmas tree algorithm art activity is an unplugged coding activity for kids K-8 to learn how everyday actions can be turned into a computer program.
Christmas Pixel Puzzles: Free Color by Number Activity for Kids
These Christmas Pixel Puzzles are a great way to introduce image representation on computers as well as work on number and color recognition.
Christmas Tangram Oil Resist Art Preschool STEAM Activity
This activity adds a little science to tangrams to make Christmas tangram oil resist art this holiday season!
12 Days of Christmas Pascal's Triangle Math Activity
Learn about Pascal’s Triangle and make a Christmas tetrahedron with this 12 Days of Christmas challenge!
Magic Reveal Christmas Pixel Art Math + Tech Activity
Magic reveal Christmas pixel art is a super neat way to incorporate math and technology into a fun learning activity!
Pascal's Triangle Christmas Tree Patterns Math Activity
We turned Pascal’s Triangle into a Christmas tree to work on some math skills and create some awesome tile art!
Dress the Elf With this Christmas Boolean Logic Activity
Trixie the Elf needs helping searching for the perfect outfit for each day of the week. Learn how to use boolean expressions to narrow down exactly the right outfit in this Christmas Elf boolean logic activity.
Communicate Like a Programmer with Christmas LEGO Building Cards
Test your communication skills by giving another person step-by-step directions on how to build a Christmas LEGO design without them seeing the final result.
Elf Engineer Zip Line STEAM Challenge for Elf on the Shelf
This Elf engineer zip line STEAM challenge for Elf on the Shelf is a fun way to add science to the season and learn about potential and kinetic energy!
25+ Elf on the Shelf STEAM Challenges: Become an Elf Engineer!
Become an Elf Engineer with these 25 Days of Elf on the Shelf STEAM challenges and free STEAM challenge cards!
Flying Elf Static Electricity Balloon Challenge
This flying elf static electricity balloon STEAM challenge is super easy to set up and a great elf engineer activity for your Elf on the Shelf to bring!
Meet Toni, the Maker Mom behind Our Family Code
Hey there, I’m Toni! I’m a software engineer and Maker Mom that finds my joy in unleashing my children’s curiosity by exploring STEAM concepts with my fantastic five!
When I’m not chasing toddlers or raising tweens, you can find me tearing things up and putting them back together over here at Our Family Code.
I am the owner and content creator of multiple educational websites designed to increase access to STEAM & STEM education with a focus on teaching computer science and coding to kids of all ages!
You can also find out more about me by visiting ToniGardner.com!
Tmemom
Saturday 17th of November 2018
Looks like such a fun process! Thanks for joining the Kid-made Christmas series