With small children in the house, it's inevitable to have small pieces of crayon that no longer get used. I discovered this while cleaning out my kids' craft box. Instead of throwing these out (they can be professionally recycled, you know!), you can recycle them yourself and make awesome, big, creative crayons. Here's how:- Peel off the wrappers. This is tedious and you're bound to get crayon in your nails. It's okay...it'll be well worth it.
Break the crayons into small pieces. Oddly enough, our crayons were already broken (wonder how that happened!). - Spray a pan with non-stick spray. I used a fun, car themed cookie pan. You can get creative and find many themed muffin or cookie pans, or candy molds. I'm lucky enough to live near Wilton Industries, who makes a ton of baking supplies.
- Arrange the crayons. Mix the colors in the mold however you want. All red in one mold, multi-colored in another. Just be sure not to put too many crayons in each mold, otherwise the wax will overflow.
Put the crayons into a pre-heated 200 degree oven. Be sure to watch the crayons carefully. You can do this by turning on the oven light & peeking in the window. At higher temperatures, the pigment tends to separate from the wax. Even at 200 degrees, I'd recommend using a toothpick to stir each crayon to make sure there is no separation.- Let cool, then freeze. Let the pan cool briefly, then freeze for up to 30 minutes. Freezing will help the crayons pop out very easily. Be sure not to put them immediately into the freezer as this may cause the crayons to crack. I'd also recommend not leaving them in the freezer for too long as this also may cause the crayons to crack.
- Pop out the crayons and color!
If you've ever tried this, or if you try after reading this, let me now how it turns out!
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8 comments:
This is one of the coolest ideas out there. And, you get to reuse those tiny little pieces. I love how you can make different shapes. Awesome post.
Thanks for sharing.
This is such a good idea! I think I am going to try it with my daughter over break. Following you from the blog hop.
Mel S
www.twomomsalittletimeandakeyboard.blogspot.com
I love how you have boy themed crayons! Sometimes I feel like boys get jipped. I can always find things for my daughter but not my son! And can I live near Wilton industries? So jealous1
Yes, I wish I could credit the orignator of this idea! I have the cars themed pans from my son's birthday...and I must say, the crayons turned out better than the cupcakes!
I absolutely love this idea! I have a shoe box full of broken little crayons (like you, I wonder how that happened) and I was wondering what to do with them since my kids prefer not to color with "short crayons".
Thanks for this clever idea! I'm going to give it a try and will let you know the results.
Roz
This is fantastic! What a great idea, and really fun for the kiddos. I still love crayons as an adult;)
I love this idea! We have tons of broken crayon bits around here. Sounds like a great craft to do to make favors for a kid's birthday party! We are doing a train theme for my son's party next month and I have little train molds I could use!!
I have to do this, like, NOW! I need the car cookie pan, my little guy would pass out from happiness if I made him car shaped crayons!
I'm here from Scribblesaurus Me - thanks for your comment :)
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