January 09, 2009

Embrace your broken crayons...

Everyone has tons of broken crayons somewhere in the house. Raid the kids art box and collect them for this fun project. Or get them involved for a fun and easy activity today.



Collect all your broken bits of crayons and peel all the paper wrapping off. If they are too big to fit into a mini muffin pan break them into smaller pieces. Turn your oven on to 350 degrees and pop the tin in the oven and watch. Give it 7-10 mins until you feel they have all melted, gently take them out and let them sit on the counter to cool.



Be very careful because they are extremely hot and if kids are involved don't let them do this bit, they could seriously burn themselves with the hot wax. After a half an hour or so try and pop them out.



Some might need a little persuasion but once out of the tin let them cool a little more. You will then have the cutest rainbow crayons. The kids LOVE them and the little hands of a baby or toddler love them because they can grasp them easily. Plus- they just look so darn cute.





I think these make a cute gift with a coloring book. You could wrap them in a little cellophane bag with a ribbon.

Have fun and definitely involve the kids if you have them. The suspense to see how they turn out is most of the fun .
:)

xoxo Emily

23 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Emily, these are awesome! I suspect that I would somehow ruin them however.

Emily Anne Leyland said...

hahahaha- no way no how. I really enjoyed doing them. Go for it girl :)

Shelle-BlokThoughts said...

We have done this...it IS really fun and about time we do it again!

Thanks for the reminder! :)

Alyson | New England Living said...

What a cute idea! I really want to do this now. I love it!

Mrs. B. Roth said...

Awesome idea. Brilliant. Recycling.

Anjeny said...

What a cute idea. Now I'm going to retreive all the broken crayons I just dump in the garbage can and try this cute little idea. How do you come up with this stuff?

Emily Anne Leyland said...

Thanks y'all. I wish I could say I came up with it. I saw this years ago and out of nowhere it came back to my mind when cleaning up from the mayhem that was Christmas :)
They are really fun to color with.

Anonymous said...

Emily,
I remember doing this when I was a kid. I used to get the giant crayon box with the sharpener in it.
When they got too short to use...they were turned into these!
Elizabeth
Bluebirds and Bubbles

The Crash Test Dummy said...

Omgosh. What a cute idea. There's a lesson here. There's a definite lesson here.

April said...

I love this idea and I don't have a crayon in the house!! I can't wait to tell my sister!! She will love it!

Unknown said...

Great idea...so doing this! I'm visiting from Mormon Mommy's

Sandra Evertson said...

This is so Fabulous! What a perfect size for tiny hands! Genius! Happy New Year!
Sandra Evertson

3 Bay B Chicks said...

Hello fabulous idea (and fabulous blog!) As a Mom to two young children, I just had to de-lurk this morning and tell you how much I love this idea. A great way to use the bits of crayons that I seem to constantly be tripping over.

Is it important that the pan be non-stick? Definitely want to put this activity to use with my kids before too long.

Thank you!

-Francesca

Colleen said...

LOVE this idea! can't wait to try it :)

colleen

Heather said...

what a cute idea! We'll have to try this...oce i trust her with crayons ;)

Emily Anne Leyland said...

Wow- I am so glad this was a great idea for you all. They are very fun to use I must say.

Francesca- they are so waxy and oily themselves that you don't need to do anything to the pan. Just whack em in there :)

CrzySoapLdy said...

That is so cool! And they look like if you put quite a few in that they'd be a lot harder to break in the hands of a toddler. I may have to buy an extra box just to break em to do this.

Wonder how a silicone muffin pan would do - I use some for my soaps and love the results, I bet they'd pop right on outta there.

Thanks for the ideas, I'm so doing this soon!

robin dudley-howes said...

What a great idea. Looks like an art project in of itself!
robin

Natalia said...

What a great idea!

I have to try this.

rummage family said...

Really cute idea...LOVE IT!

binks said...

What a great idea, I always hate throwing useful things away. Great way to recycle old crayons.

LBBlum said...

What great ideas! love it

Rosie said...

I save all the crayon's from resturant's that give them to my son whe I have enough I melt them I've even bought some candy mold's and melted them inton little cars, train. motorcyle's, and buses. My son really enoy's them and enjoy's sharing them with his friends.