We all know there comes a time when all those new colorful crayons turn into old broken down crayons. Instead of throwing them out, make new ones!
Here is how!
Gather all your broken crayons. Decide what pan or mold you will use. We use the mini muffin tins. You can also use just about any silicone or other forms of cupcakes/cookie/cake molds to make different shapes. We have a mini gingerbread mold that we will be making in the winter.
Peel all the papers off of the crayons. This is a great job to keep kiddos busy for a while. If your little one has a hard time peeling them, give them a hand by using knife to slit down the side of the crayon. Then, let your kiddos go at it pulling them off. It’s wise to pre-cut slits in them ahead of time to make it easier and for safety.
Next, break them all down into smaller pieces, they don’t have to be super small. Just small enough to fit into your mold.
Preheat your oven to 265 degrees.
Arrange them in your mold/pan however you want. You can stick to solid colors, mix one or two colors or even mix a whole bunch of colors! My boys choose to mix lots of colors. You can use this as a learning tool. Talk about how to mix colors to get new colors.
A few tips that are optional:
- Very lightly spraying your pan with a non-stick spray. (this may give greasy results)
- Using muffin/cupcake paper cups..This gives you a “Reese Cup” appearance on the edges.
- Using silicone molds. They are much easier to pop out.
- You may want to dedicate whatever pan or mold you use, to just crafts. Cleanup can be tricky.
Bake the crayons at 265 degrees for approx 5-8 minutes. Be very careful not to overheat/overcook them. You just want to cook them until all crayons have melted and lost their original form. Pic below is them right as they came out of the oven.
BE CREATIVE...Here we tried for a camo effect.
Let them cool in a fridge for 30-45 minutes or the freezer for about 20 minutes. This makes them easier to remove/pop out of the pans. Muffin papers make this job real easy, then just peel them off. Use caution when popping them out. To much force may break them. I turned ours upside down on a flat surface and tap firmly a few times. You may get one or two broken or chipped crayons.
Test them out and HAVE FUN!
Did you give this a try? Put your own creative spin on it? Tried this before? Have more tips or tricks to add? Share your ideas & photos with us!!
This looks like fun! I am going to give it a shot this weekend,Thank you for sharing!
Your Welcome! I am going to be posting another way to do these with fun shapes soon!