Melted Crayon Craft

On Sunday I started going through and organizing my teaching stuff I used in the past and came across a sad bag of old, broken crayons.  I had run across several clever blog posts online about recycling broken crayons instead of throwing them away.  I had always meant to give it a try, but just never found the time.  Today I made the time to make this melted crayon craft and I am so glad I did because my son and I had a great time doing it.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Crayons- you will have to peel the paper off of them.

Cupcake tin or candy molds- Any shape will do.  I promise if you use your good tin cupcake pans the melted crayons WILL pop out easily and cleanup will be a snap. (I worried about this, too.)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Peel the paper from each crayon.  It really helps to use old, broken ones that already have the paper off, but be prepared to peel if not.

Break the crayons into small pieces and fill each cupcake tin with a handful or so.  You may prefer to use more or less depending on the size of the tin you are using and how thick or thin you prefer them.

Place the tin into a preheated oven that is 150 degrees.  “Bake” your crayons for 20 minutes.  May need more or less time depending on mold size.

After removing from the oven, place the tin in the freezer until crayons harden.  It took our batch about 15-20 minutes.  Once hardened, the crayons will easily pop out, but be forewarned…they are very delicate and may crack easily.  We lost a couple of ours.

Ideally, I wish I had made these a little thicker, but I may go back and add a couple of them together in a tin and melt them over again.  Either way, my son was amazed and thinks I’m pretty cool!  These would make great little birthday favors tied in a small clear cellophane bag with a cute ribbon.  This melted crayon craft was super easy and one we will definitely try again.