Recycled Crayons

If you have kids, you most likley have crayons. And if you have crayons, you most likely have little, stubby, broken crayons that the kids don't want to use anymore.

A few years ago we melted down a bunch of crayons into heart shapes and affixed them to Makenna's Valentine cards for her friends.

Today: The Christmas version.

First - remove the paper wrappers from any little crayon pieces, and sort into colour families. This sorting into colour families is a great job for the kids to help with.

Then, place each colour grouping into its own metal can.

Place in oven at 350 F, checking every couple minutes and stirring with plastic spoons until all the chunks are gone and you have smooth liquid wax.

Not quite ready yet - need a couple more minutes.

Wearing an oven mitt, spoon liquid wax into silicone ice cube tray. The silicone ones work well for this because they easily pop out once they have cooled and hardened. I got these trays at Zehrs for $1 each.

Of course, you have broken, little pieces of crayons year round, and this is a great project for any time of year. Silicone ice cube trays are pretty common and can be found in a variety of forms. Next time we do this, we'll make the Elmo and Cookie Monster ones. You could also use plastic chocolate moulds.

After about an hour or so, you can safely pop them out of thier trays, and...ta-daa!! Nice big crayons again!

You can find plenty of references online on how to make these. I used this site as my guide this time. She shows you how to make layered "rainbow" crayons too.

All you need are crayons, ice cube trays or chocolate moulds, and metal cans (soup cans, pasta sauce cans, etc).

Simple stocking stuffers or gifts for your children's friends, cousins, or any special little person in your life!

Just make sure Daddy knows they are crayons, not chocolates!

;)