DIY Rainbow Crayon Holder and the Coolest Thank You Cards Ever

Thanks Tiny Prints for sponsoring this tutorial. I only work with brands that I love and that I think you’ll love too. Thanks for supporting the brands that support Lines Across.

You all know how much I love coloring. I just can’t get enough crayons, colored pencils, and markers. And my kids love coloring too! And as much as they love making their own cards for people, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for them to make complete cards from scratch… especially when they are trying to write a lot of thank you notes at once.

When I saw these coloring thank you cards for kids from Tiny Prints, I immediately fell in love, and I knew my kids would love them too. There are so many different fun choices and ways to personalize the cards, or you can leaves spaces blank. My daughter Lyla absolutely LOVES writing her name on everything, so I decided to leave the “from” section blank on her cards. But I know that my son Benjamin thinks it’s so cool to see his name in print, so I personalized his robot cards to include his name.

There are a lot of different cards to choose from. I ended out picking out these flowery cards for Lyla, these robot cards for Benjamin, and a set of these rainbow cards for both kids to use. I think the rainbow ones are my favorite! I love that my kids are excited about writing thank you cards instead of thinking of it as a chore. In fact they were even writing thank you cards to each other for little things like “spending time with me.”

And I also made a rainbow crayon holder out of air dry clay for each of my kids to keep at their desks. They are really fun to make and pretty easy. The hardest part is waiting for the air dry clay to dry.

What you need:

1. Air dry clay
2. Crayons
3. Water + Paper Towel
4. Clay tools (optional)
5. Paint
6. Sealant (like Mod Podge)

What you do:

1. For some reason I find air dry clay a little bit difficult to work with. Adding a little bit of water seems to help, but it also makes it messy. Start by kneading your clay and molding it into a semicircle shape that is about one inch deep. You can use a damp paper towel to help smooth the edges.
2. Plan out how many crayon holes you want and how far apart to make them.
3. Use crayons to make holes across the top part of the rainbow. I used older crayons because they ends will stay a little white and chalky after this. Keep all of the crayons in place at the same time.
4. Now with the crayons still in place, adjust the shape of your rainbow. Sometimes inserting the crayons makes your shape change a little bit. Make sure the bottom is flat and smooth.
5. Wiggle the crayons around a little bit to make sure the holes are bigger than the crayons themselves, then remove the crayons.
6. Using a clay knife (or even a kitchen knife is fine), gently cut the top layer off of the clay so that it is even and smooth. Smooth your edges. Use a crayon once again to make sure that all of the holes are wider than the crayons themselves.
7. Use a clay tool or the back side of a paint brush to make little lines across both sides of your rainbow.
8. Let your rainbow dry. This takes a couple of days and waiting is not much fun!
9. The clay will be an off-white color, so I started by painting my rainbows all white. Then when that dries, paint your rainbow different colors. You could play around with different colors like a pastel rainbow or you could even leave it all white. Coat your crayon holder with a sealant like Mod Podge or a spray sealant and enjoy!

Tip: if any of your crayon holes are too small, the crayons won’t fit. You can use rolled up sand paper or a drill bit to make the holes a little bigger even after the clay has dried.

 

My daughter Lyla especially loves her rainbow crayon holder. she’s even obsessed with keeping the crayons in rainbow order (I wonder where she got that from, haha). We’ve had a lot of fun coloring in thank you cards! Oh and you can also pick out envelope liners to match your cards. I picked out some colorful striped liners to go inside plain white envelopes. There are so many choices though.

I also ordered some wrap-around return address labels from Tiny Prints for the kids to match their cards. Lyla got the colorful confetti labels, and Benjamin got the nuts and bolts labels that match his robot thank you cards.

Plus, Tiny Prints is having a special Teacher’s Appreciation promotion going on right now through April 19. (Wouldn’t these cards be the perfect way to help your kids say thank you to their teachers?) If you follow this link, you can choose one of the 12 designs and receive 5 free cards. And you will also receive 50% off all other thank you cards.

I love seeing them so excited about writing letters! What about you? Do your kids enjoy writing letters? Is it hard to get them to write thank you notes? Which design of color-in thank you notes would you choose?