and red and orange and blue and purple..... The girls crayons have become such a mess. Half of them are broken and the rest are dull. I hated to just toss out perfectly good crayons even though in their current state, they were unusable by a 4 year old and a 3 year old. So I searched through the vast array of knowledge that google provides and came across several how-to's on recycling or up-cycling crayons! Perfect!
This morning I ran to Michaels and bought myself a mini-muffin tin and a $1 pack of 64 crayons, in case I completely mess things up, the girls will have a back-up. When I get home, I enlist the littles to help me rip off all the paper and group the crayons according to color. Set the oven to 200 degrees, fill the muffin tins and wait. And wait and wait and wait. Most of the websites said 10 minutes, apparently at high altitudes that translates to 30 minutes. And 30 minutes to a 3 year old might as well be 5 years. But the wait was worth it. Aren't they pretty?!
I might have to go back and find some fun shaped molds. As while these are super easy to grip for any age toddler, M got a bit frustrated at not being able to hold them "correctly" and she wasn't able to color within the lines with as much precision as she is used to. But she did like the swirly/rainbow effect of the new crayons.
7 comments:
Great idea! I'm definitely passing this one on! Thanks for sharing!
These are great! did the cooled crayons just pop out of the muffin tins? Did you have to do anything to keep 'em from sticking? Were all your crayons 'crayola' brand? I'm thinking this would be a craft for the pre-k at VBS. They could take the up-cycled crayons home, and I'll buy some decent ones for the bigger kids to use!
what a great idea! I'll have to google the recipe. :)
I left the tin on the counter to cool for about 7 or 8 minutes and then popped it in the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes and they shrank when the were put in the freezer so they did just pop out. And I had a mix of Crayola, Disney, Olive Garden, Elmers and unknown brands of crayons. I think the Crayola took the longest to melt.
The girls had a great time helping tear off the paper and then breaking the crayons into small pieces to put into the tin.
Wow! That's a great idea. And they're so pretty, too.
My friends did the same thing, using fun shape molds. The 8 yr old sold them at his public school for .25 cents each and made over $300 as a fundraiser to give to missions. Very cool.
Cool! Great idea!
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