Recyled Crayons

[po]

I saw this awesome idea on this post http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=235023.0 and thought this would be a great project from my three year old and I to do together. I bought some dollar store crayons, broke them into small bits and had my daughter place them in the muffin tin (which I also picked up at the dollar store). We put them in the oven at 150 degrees for about 25 minutes until the wax had melted. I took them out and swirled the wax with a toothpick and let them cool for about a half an hour in the freezer. They popped out of the tin really easily and I cut them in half so they'd have a good point. There's also an article in the Good Things for Kids magazine by Marthat Stewart. They used a heart shaped tin, which is super cute. It'd be fun to do some different shapes. My daughter loves coloring with these and it was such a fun, easy afternoon project!

[Kaissa]

Those turned out so pretty! When we were little this was a winter-time project - we'd put cleaned out tuna cans full of crayons on the woodstove and watch them melt! 

[bluegrey]

Those are some really nice color combinations.  

I've been dying to try this project out myself, but I'm worried I'd mess something up (and I'm not allowed to touch the oven anyway unless I'm cooking something).  

By the way, I think I have that book you mentioned.  There's some really nice craft ideas in there.

[tasket.basket]

Fun and cute!  I've been wanting to try this with my kids.  (They're not even little anymore, but they're crafty.  )

[nataluna]

i bet you could collage the wrappers, too.  looks like you took them off nice and neat.  would make a pretty decoupage for the outside of kids' crafts-box or something.

[shootingstar]

I just tried to do that YESTERDAY!  Mine didn't come out so well, I put the pieces in mason jars in boiling water.  When I poured them into the molds, all the colors mixed together and I didn't get the neat swirls .  Great job, now I know how to do it for next time!  Thanks 

[po]

Thanks for the great feedback everyone! I was actually really suprised how unmessy and easy this was to do, I highly recommend for kids of all ages! My daughter LOVED being given permission to break the crayons! Great idea Nataluna, to use the wrappers for decopauge. The first few I tried to get off just by peeling them but that was just too hard. So I used a razor blade to cute them off... Much easier!

[PurpleHeather]

These are cool - I'll have to see if I can pick some up & have a go.  Glad to hear that they work with cheapy crayons too - thanks for sharing.

Do you reckon swirling glitter in might work?

[tibeydo]

I helped organize a program for Girl Scouts today to help them earn badges,  and wanted to make these as "gifts" to show them a way to recycle the tiny crayons, but we ran out of time. I'm definitely doing this next fall. Glad to know the cheap crayons worked!

A generous craftster sent some to my kids in a swap, and she'd made them in the tiny muffin tins, so they were perfect for tiny hands. Thanks for some other insight, and way to get your daughter involved

[po]

I think adding glitter would be awesome! I'm not sure how it would mix with the wax, You'd probably want to add it after taking the crayons out of the oven so it doesn't sink to the bottom. Then you could just stir it in with a toothpick... These cool really fast so you'd have to be quick!