Making Crayons
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As an elementary school teacher, I have access to a LOT of crayons. Each year I buy boxes and boxes of crayons and it seems as though the reds, the browns, and the blacks dissappear half way through the year. I’m not talking about violet-red, red-violet, red-orange, etc. I’m talking about your basic red, brown, and black. Also, I always end up with about 20 white crayons that have not been touched. Another issue I’m always having is that the crayons get broken into little tiny pieces that no one wants to use.
Last year I finally came up with a solution. I had 2 silicone molds just sitting in my cupboard at home when I had the idea to melt down my old, broken crayons and make fun new ones! I have a star mold and a flower mold. The first time I did this I gathered up all the broken crayons, nasty crayons, “nudie” crayons, and the white crayons. If they were a little bit longer then I’d like I broke them into smaller pieces. Then I grouped them into colors. The blues (light blue, dark blue, cornflower blue, blue-purple, etc) all went into a pile. I then split up the white pieces in between all the groups.
Next I put like colors into the molds together. I heated them in the oven until they liquified and then took the out to cool. Once they had cooled they were easy to pop out. I took them to school and the kids were fighting to use them because they were so cool. I ended up making them again for Christmas and giving them to the kids as gifts. They loved them! This is also a great project for kids to help with.
Homemade Crayons
2-3 cups of broken, peeled, crayons
Silicone baking mold
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Put each of your silicone baking molds on a cookie sheet.
2. Peel the paper off the crayons and break into small pieces if needed. Group the crayons by color.
3. Put the crayons in the molds according to color filling to the top. Put in the oven on the baking sheet for 15 minutes (or until they are completely melted).
4. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheets for 15 minutes. Take the silicone molds off the baking sheets and place on a cooling rack and additional 20 minutes. Pop out and enjoy!
How creative! I love this! Thanks for sharing girl. 🙂
This is the greatest idea! My 21-month old is loving his crayons, but of course they all keep breaking. I can’t wait to reconstitute them like this. Thank you!