"Painted" Oil Pastel Crystal Sun Catchers
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First, we googled some easy crystal/jewel clip art. We used those as models for our own drawings.
After we sketched out our designs, we traced them with Sharpies.
(It was hard for my 1st grader to draw big crystals, so it took several tries before we got large enough designs.)
Then, I opened my ancient box of oil pastels and we colored the designs in. (Can you believe that I've had this box for more than 15 years? Gosh. It just shows how infrequently we pull it out!)
Then, I poured out some cooking oil into plastic cups. We used Q-tips to smear the colors.
(My son went to town and ended up smearing everything more than he liked. So just remember that the colors will mix with the oil! So change up q-tips and make sure to "paint" only what you want to smear.)
Then, we let them dry on paper towels overnight. (Warning: The oil WILL continue to spread!)
The next day, we cut them out. (Surprising note: Sharpies smear with oil too. Who knew?) The oil mostly dried by that point.
Here's what they looked like cut out:
Here's the magic:
The combination of oil and oil pastel resulted in beautiful translucent colors, which made these paper gems lovely sun catchers.
Oh! And if you're looking for more oil pastels crafts, check out the links below:
More Fun Oil Pastel Crafts:
Happy creating friends!