boredom buster - crayon making

This past weekend we were just sitting around the house due to snow/ rain.  I was cleaning up a pencil case of crayons that had been knocked over and thought about the colorful swirled crayons we had when I was younger.  Not sure what happened to them but I have not seen any anywhere.  I loved them!  So I thought since we have so many crayons we would make our own.

It's really easy.  Set the oven to 350 degrees.  Choose what mold or pan you would like to use.  We used a standard muffin tin that was at the dollar tree.  The only mold I had was for pumpkins and it was too shallow which I knew would mean the crayons would break very easily.  Spray the mold with any cooking spray you have around. 

Now comes the tedious part.  I didn't realize how long it would really take so if you have small children you may want to work ahead and prep.  You need to peel the crayons.  Get all the paper off and if some are really gluey just rub your fingers over it and the glue comes off.

Here are my girls peeling.  (We had already finger painted that day too).  You will judge how many you need depending on your mold. 

Peeled and ready to go.  The girls LOVED the next step.  Maybe because they are always told to be careful with their crayons.  Have you guessed it?  That's right.....

Time to break the crayons!  Now if you are using broken crayons already you can probably skip this step.  If you are using mainly whole crayons like we did, I snapped them in three pieces each to fit.  Again, it depends on your mold. 

We filled the muffin cups about half way.  It seemed like a good size.  They will melt down but I also wanted them to melt completely.

Put them in the oven for 7 - 8 minutes.  This is what they looked like when melted.  It actually only took about 20 minutes for them to cool completely.  Thanks to the cooking spray they were easy to pop out too.

We ended up with three for each girl.  They love them and had so much fun making them.  This morning one of Katherine's friends came here before school and I heard Katherine telling her how we made them.  A very simple useful craft to make.