Today we are playing with Faber-Castell’s Crafter Crayons. These are part of their Design-Memory-Craft division that is geared towards using high-quality art products in mixed media and paper crafts. So, these aren’t your average crayola’s! According to Faber-Castell,
“Paper Crafter Crayons™ are highly-pigmented wax crayons that can be used on all types of crafting surfaces.”
These crayons pack a powerful punch of color when using. They are housed in a plastic casings that have a twist-top which is great for storing them, ensuring that no crayon breaks off the end. It’s also great for sharpening your crayons; there is also an end that screws off nearest to wear the crayon comes out. Take this off before trying to sharpen them. I found this made it easier. I also measured the actual crayon inside the housing and you’re getting approximately five and a half inches of colorful crayon.
So what do they look like??? Here’s a traditional dummy swatch; I used a lighter and darker crayon so you could see the difference.
The texture of your surface makes a huge difference on how these crayons are going to look on your projects. Things like canvas and textured cardstock the crayon really brings out the texture. With surfaces like vellum and glossy cardstock the crayon glided on smoothly.
Remember how earlier I was saying you could sharpen your crayons? Well, don’t throw away those shavings! Keep them on your craft matt and whip out your embossing/heat gun!
All tags I used Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio black gesso to prep them. For Tag A, I simply sprinkled my little bits of shavings all around and melted them. Make sure your gun is heated up a bit before you get close to the tag or you will just blow all of the little bits off. Tag B, I used the same technique except I took one of my hot glue helpers on my fingers and once the waxed bits were melted I swirled them all around to make a fun, abstract effect. Tag C, I just color blocked the tag in different colors, heated it up and gently blended the colors together creating an ombre effect.
Now you can’t really stamp with crayons? Or can you? Well, kind of… I took a large background stamp I had and using a plain piece of copy paper, I used the crayons to create a resist image. Way cool! I also used the crayons to color in some patterned paper flowers I had and voila! A quick card was made!
For this project I took a flat-back canvas and mod-podged sheet music on top of it. After that I doodled a design, colored it in with the crayons and then I whipped out my heat tool and hot glue helper finger. As I melted the wax I used my finger to blend the colors together and filling in any little gaps that I had missed. When I was done I used Ranger Enamel Accents to fill in the outline.
In conclusion, I had fun playing with these crayons. I think it depends on how often you use crayons in your creative process. I’m not a crayon user in general, so I don’t know how motivated I would be to purchase these. However, I do love playing with wax so these would be great for mixed-media and art journaling. There are three sets of artist crayons available for approximately $9.95 each. I played with the blue/green set but there are also neutral and red/yellow sets available. For the amount of “crayon” you’re getting (5.5″) and the fact that they are highly-pigmented, it’s not a bad deal at approximately $1.25 per crayon. What do you think crafters? As always, let me know in the comments.
Make sure you check out some of the other Faber-Castell reviews we’ve done here at Craft Test Dummies!
- Brand New Tim Holtz & Ranger Ink Distress Oxide Review - April 12, 2017
- Rhonna Farrer Chalkboard Wall Art Tutorial – - December 15, 2016
- Make Distress Paints into MARKERS! - March 15, 2016
- CHA 2016 – Ranger Ink Designer Challenge – - January 16, 2016
- Craft Product Comparison and Overview: Ranger Ink Paints - November 11, 2015
- Product Review: Ranger Ink – Dina Wakley Media Paints and Fine Tip Applicator - August 16, 2015
- Product Review: Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Paints From Ranger Ink - June 9, 2015
- CHA 2015 – Tim Holtz Idea-ology Booth Tour - March 18, 2015
- CHA 2015 – Heidi Swapp Booth and Minc Video - March 13, 2015
- CHA 2015 – Beadalon 3D Bracelet Jig - March 12, 2015
Jean Bullock says
The crafter crayons look very interesting and it may be the solution I need for coloring. Great review!
Rosi says
These are cute ideas for kids! thanks!