Make your own crayons!
Thank you Ellen who sent in this awesome activity and pictures! She is a mom with an elementary aged daughter who helped and a preschool aged son who got to play with the end result! Here’s the how to!
- Gather your materials. You will need an Oven set at 275* , a muffin tin, with liners, and all those old broken crayons we all have laying about. New ones would work too!
- Line your muffin tin with paper liners, and about half full with the crayon bits.
- Bake for about 8 minutes, watch them closely because they melt fast.
- Take them out of the oven once they are melted and let cool for 30 minutes.
- Remove the liners and get coloring! If they break put them aside and do it again!
Thanks again to Ellen for letting us share this !
If you have a craft idea or activity you have recently done with your child and want to share, send it to allie@notimeforflashcards.com along with pictures and I will gladly feature it in a future reader’s Corner!
Cheris says
That was so fun! My 3.5 year old was thrilled. We didn’t have any paper liners so we just used paper cups and that worked fine. However, it took about twice as long to melt. I’m not sure if that’s because of the cups or the big crayons. Next time we won’t use the chunky crayons because they never did really melt. (Still looked cool, though)
Thanks!
Allison says
I am glad you tried it and had fun!
Thanks for the tip about the chunky crayons, that is good to know.
Anonymous says
I absolutely love reading your bloga and your ideas are wonderful!! i love this crayon idea!!! i want to start doing some activities this fall with my 19mo, its never to early to start learning!!!
Chrisitne
Anonymous says
I bet you could also use fun shaped candy molds. I think we’ll try this activity tomorrow. Great idea…my kids will adore it.
Allison says
I keep meaning to try it with candy molds. Now is the time to do it, crayons are on sale everywhere for back to school. Hmmm I might just have to do it!
*~*Lis*~* says
My almost 2 1/2 year old and I did this today as part of “C” week and she loved it! Although I had to mix up the colors before putting them in the oven – she wanted to put all the same colors together so I just let her organize 🙂
Thanks for another great idea!
Demonna says
I use my mini muffin silicone pan and they just pop right out without a hitch. Just a suggestion from one mom to another.
Andrea says
Just shared this on my newest blog. My SIL and I are trying to keep an eye on things for one another, and anyone else interested! 😉 Thanks for the tips, LOVE the idea!
.-= Andrea´s last blog ..Fall Activities =-.
Ludicrous Mama says
If you use silicone molds, be prepared to not be able to use them for food after. I can’t get the color out of mine! But I melted the wax in the mold. Might be different if you melt the wax in a pot and pour it in.
If you put the molds into an ice bath immediately after removal from the oven (or after pouring in pre-melted crayons, depending on how you’re making them,) you get less paraffin separation, which is the whitish stuff you’ll see at the tops of your new crayons.
I used a large cake pan (9×13? I don’t know my cookware very well) and filled it halfway with water, and then enough ice that most of the surface had some, but not too packed, so the mold could displace it out of the way to fit flat.