I have made recycled crayons before – and I got a little addicted to doing them and made a million for Christmas presents but yesterday was the first time I did it without using an oven. It is so fun melting crayons with the sun. The heatwave on the west coast was in full swing and I decided to try something new… and it worked!
- Gather your materials. You will need some crayons
, aluminum foil, cookie cutters, a paper plate and a very hot sunny spot.
- Start by peeling and breaking your crayons into small pieces. I left some chunky bits because it was well over 100 and figured it would be fine, if the day was cooler I’d used shavings to melt faster.
- Cover the plate with aluminum foil
- Place the plate with the cookie cutters in a sunny spot
- Add the broken crayons
- Wait- in 100+ heat this took an hour to melt, but I had lots of really big pieces.
- Yay, they melted!
- Let cool inside, then pop out of the cookie cutters. Mine slid right out, I just broke off the little bit of extra that slipped out on the bottom.
- Color on scrap paper for a truly eco-friendly activity!
More recycled crafts!
Check out these 75 fun recycled crafts!
joyceandnorm says
This is great! We'll have to wait for a hot one. The weather has been so strange this summer for us. It was a bit misty when we went out for VBS this morning, but last year at this time we were sweating bullets. Anyhow, I have a ton of stubby crayons from when we were kids, but kept getting a new box every school year.
TheMadHouse says
I love your blog and have just started one myself. I am somewhat envious of your heat. It is a very wet summer here in the UK. I would love your comments if you get chance
http://themadhouse-themadhouse.blogspot.com/
ceemee says
That's a nice twist to art! And it makes coloring with the shaped crayons interesting!
Beth- the mama bee says
I have made bunches of these too, but never outside with cookie cutters. good thinking mama!
Trisha says
What a great way to take advantage of the hot sun. I think we'll do this next week.
I also wanted to report that we did the Queen Anne's Lace coloring from your other blog and had the same experience with blue coming through much better than the other colors.
Pink & Green Mama says
Love this craft!! We're big re-cycled crayon fans around here but I never thought of using solar energy to melt them!! Brilliant : )
Beverly says
I have wanted to make these but this way is so much easier! thanks for sharing. It is hot here in TX to do this!
Jackie says
Wow that is soooo coool!! It's not quite hot enough here to try this (which is amamzing, because we're usually getting the 103 temps about now), but I'm sure we'll pay for our cool temps later in the summer and we'll try it then~ Did you say you can do this in the oven?? What a fun idea.
Allie says
I really didn't think it would work, i was like a kids at Christmas when I saw they did. So I am eager to see if it works for others and at what temps.
Trisha- thanks for letting me know about the queen anne's lace experiment, now that I am home and we have ac I need to research why the blue seemed to be absorbed so much faster!
Amber says
Great idea – I love it!
Although as a fellow west coaster I'm a little bit fed up with the heat wave, and wish it weren't hot enough to do it on the sidewalk, you know? 😉
My Boaz's Ruth says
Cool. I bought some cheap Crayolas to donate to the my son's Sunday School class. Now I'm going to see if I can trade for the old broken down crayons they have instead! (We just started coloring about 2 weeks ago so not enough at our house to tr it)
Teaching My Little BookWorm says
we haven't heat like that to melt them but i think they melted neater then in the oven cuz they aren't so blended!
cambridgeclan says
This is perfect for me! I have a gallon size bag of old crayons that I have been wanting to put to use. Thanks for the idea. I am sure we will have more 100 plus days in the next few weeks.
Amy from Occupation: Mommy says
What a fun twist on recycled crayons! My girls would get a kick out of this. When I was in college, one summer my boyfriend (now husband) and I fried an egg outside on foil like this. It worked, although it took a couple of hours. And no, we didn't eat it 🙂
MaryAnne says
I love this idea! Now we need the rain to stop and the sun to come out so we can try it too…
cabadov says
What a great idea, though it certianly hasn't been that sunny or hot to melt ice let alone crayons.
We've done crayon stained glass art (crayon shavings between wax paper and melted with an iron). Kids love it and they look great. It's a good use of small broken crayons too.
Marilyn Terrell says
Excellent tip. I grew up in NYC so here's the NYC street version of this technique from my childhood. My friends and I used to melt crayon bits in bottle caps to make playing pieces for a sidewalk game called scully. We put the crayon bits in the bottle caps, and placed the bottle caps over holes in one of the steaming manhole covers in the sidewalk, and they melted very nicely. I don't remember how long it took but the scully caps were ready by the time we had to go home for dinner!
faemom says
That is a great idea! Thanks for sharing. I totally have to do that with the kids.
Alicia says
My mom did this when I was a kid, but she just used a metal baking sheet.
One tip- I wouldn't try shaving. They turned to brown yuck for us as quick as the melted! Be patient and use chunks!
Jes says
I just wanted to let you know that I love your site, and have been returning to it time and time again for ideas and inspiration on things to do with my now-two-year old daughter. Thanks for putting simple and not-so-simple crafts out there for all to see! Keep up the great work, and a million thank-yous from us to you!
Jackie says
what a crazy-cool idea. i want to try it out before this heat wave we are having over here is over! thanks for the great idea!
🙂
jackie.
Tara Rison says
Great Activity to reuse what every parent and teacher already has – lots of broken crayons.
I love how you did this outside. Perfect for classrooms w/o access to an oven.
Katherine says
I know from experience that you do not need a heat wave to melt crayons… just leave your car in a sunny spot all day, the crayons will melt just fine!
Sandra says
This is so smart! I love your creativity. We will be doing this today–thanks as always for bringing a fresh twist to an easy, accessible craft!!
Amanda says
Love your sight! I did this today with my daycare preschool kids…they loved it! One tip…I used some roseart brand crayons along with crayola. The roseart brand crayons got soft in the sun, but held their shape. The crayola crayons melted and blended together. It still worked, but next time I will only use crayola crayons! Thanks for the great idea!
MoneySavingEnthusiast says
This is perfect for today! it’s suppose to be very hot and I need a low maintenance acitivity before fireworks!
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KIDS101 says
Well I’m so sorry I missed doing this great activity with my kids during our heat wave. No it’s only 81, after being over 90 for weeks. Guess I’ll have to save it for next year.
Annessa says
You have great ideas and beautiful, clear descriptions of them. These are really helpful in planning for my preschool class! Thanks!
Sharon Martin says
I live in Yuma Az. This will be fun. Thanks