School is out and my kindergartener has brought home a box full of broken crayons. We usually just dump them in another box of broken crayons for him to create his colorful masterpieces. The small broken crayons never really get used, since no one can actually hold them. Not even his small little hands can hold a nub of a crayon. I hate to just throw things out. There is always a use for them, so I decided why not make new crayons. I didn’t want to turn on the oven during summer, so we made up a tray and left them in the sun and this is what happened.
Homemade Crayons
Supplies for Homemade Crayons
Broken left over crayons
Muffin Tin Cups
Muffin Tin
Sun
Directions on How to Make Homemade Crayons
1. First take off all the paper of the little nubs of crayons or find the little broken bits in your child’s school box. This is the most time consuming part, but I bet you have tons of unused crayons lying around your house. These colors want to be used too. Don’t throw them away repurpose them in to something new.
2. Next line a muffin tin or mini muffin tin with two layers of muffin tin liners. I have found out you should use the tin foil ones, so the wax does not melt through the paper.
3. Leave out in the sun during the middle of the day on a dark black surface for at least two hours in temperatures above 90 degrees. I really thought we would need hotter temperatures to melt the crayons. However, these melted in about 90 degree weather just fine. If they are not completely melted after two hour just leave them out there a little longer. This also is a fun science experiment to go check on them about every 15 minutes to see the progress.
4. Bring inside to cool for about an hour or place the pan in the fridge for a few minutes to harden. Simply pop them out of the paper liners and color away.
Now these old used up colors have new life again. Who knew it would be so easy to make homemade crayons. We love to throw in a random color in each one. Instead of just blues and greens, we would throw in a yellow just for something fun. After the crayons are all melted, take a toothpick and swirl the colors around for a unique crayon.
I love this! My kids don’t have too many destroyed crayons yet, but when we get them I’ll be sure to try this. Thankfully, here in Costa Rica I think I could make these year round.
Fun idea! I was wondering what I could do with all my extra little crayons.
Now I know what to do with all those crayon shards all over the place! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Could we do oven on 150 degress?
You could try this. I have not done it. Please let me know how it turns out.