This is a very easy way of creating your own background paper using only your iron and some crayons. I like this technique better than marbling as I find it much easier and less messy and... less smelly too .

So what you do is:

1. Get your iron and wrap the base with alluminium foil.

2. Get the crayons you're going to use. It's even better if they are glittery crayons as then the glitter will transfer to the paper and make it sparkle.

3. Switch the iron on and let it warm up but not too much just enough to melt the crayons. When it's warm enough, switch it off.

4. Rub the crayons over the foil - you'll see them melting straight away. You can either mix the colours or do one colour at a time. Just experiment on a piece of paper until you get the desired effect.

5. Place the iron on a piece of paper but don't move it about just kind of put it down and lift it up.

6. If you don't have glittery crayons you can use your glitter tubes to sprinkle some over the wax on the paper while it's still warm so it sticks to the paper.

And that's it. I've created these two lovely A4 sheets of background paper using this technique. On one I used orange, green, brown and yellow to create the lovely Autumn colours and on the other I used different pinks and red and purple.

If you want to try this technique bear the following in mind:

- protect your work surface;
- if your children are helping you make sure you supervise them at all times;
- never leave your iron unattended, specially if it's hot or connected to the mains;

 If you find that you get large amounts of wax on your paper just warm up the iron and stab the paper so the wax melts and spreads.

Hope you have fun trying this technique.

Also, yesterday I made some fun birthday cards for children and also two more paper baskets: one for Valentine's day and the other with a pink baby boot. Have a look!