Art: You can too!

Have broken crayons? No Problem!


We did some crayon recycling with our old bin of crayons that we've had for about six years now. Some of the crayons were starting to look a little sad and no one would use them and so this project was born. 

The first step was to sort by color, some variation is acceptable such as light green and dark greens together.

Now for the tedious part which is peeling off the paper and breaking them.

While you are doing this part preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

After all the crayons are ready you will want to prepare what you are going to melt them in. I have some silicon molds that I am using, but any kind will work well. If you don't have any of those, an old cupcake tin will also work. The thing to keep in mind is that you will probably not want to use it for food after word, so cheap is good! I am placing my mold on a cookie sheet that is lined with foil and wax paper should things some how spill.

Then I place the whole thing in the oven and let it melt till it is all completely melted (about 10-15 min.)

After it is all melted, I took it out very carefully. Remember, it's melted wax and it is very hot including the molds so be very cautious and let this step be for the grownups only.

As you can tell from the photo above the waxes and the pigment are needing to be stirred, a popsicle stick or tooth pick will work just fine.

After that, you just wait for the wax to harden and your have a new set of crayons ready for coloring. Just be sure that if you make a brown one, to make sure the kids know it's not a peanut butter cup!

*With the holiday seasons just around the corner, some fun molds could lend this to be a great home made gift. I plan to make a set using a christmas tree mold for my kids I teach sunday school to.