Craft A Week #21 Chunky Toddler Crayons

I have a total of seven grandkids and at least one or two come visit every few weeks. I LOVE having them come stay - and I even enjoy the stuff that comes from kids. I'm talking about army men, Matchbox cars, dolls and doll clothes,and last but not least, crayons! I have a coffee tub for crayons but there's always at least a few that don't seem to make it back into their proper place. 

Yesterday I was harvesting up the errant crayons (many of which were broken) and it struck me.  Let's turn this into a craft project!  I decided to snap them into pieces and melt into chunky toddler crayons. This was another super simple craft and they came out so cute.

Just take the paper off the crayons, break them up, and put into muffin tins or other molds.  I sprayed a little cooking spray before adding the crayons just to be sure they would not stick. I was a little worried about mucking up my pans, which proved to be unwarranted.  I put the crayons directly into my heart shaped muffin tin.

I also had these super adorable hard boiled egg shapers that I used as well. If you are not familar with these, they are plastic molds (these are a bear and a rabbit). If you hard boil an egg, peel it, and put into the mold while it is still warm. As it cools, the egg takes on the shape of the mold.These are used in Japanese miso boxes (or by me for super cute hard boiled eggs).

I forgot to take a picture of the empty mold before melting the crayons (hence the green wax). The molds are made of plastic but because these are melted on such a low temperature, they are fine in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Melt the crayons for about 10 minutes (or until they are melted).

 Aren't they pretty?

I left them in the molds for a few hours (while I ran errands). Make sure they are cooled completely before you try to remove them from the molds. The heart shaped crayons just popped out, however, the bunny and bear needed to go into the freezer for a bit to loosen.

These came out so nicely, if I do say so myself!

I LOVE these!

Lesson learned though: Be careful when removing these from their molds. One of the bunnies lost the tips of his ears (I think because I hit it too hard on the counter). They are still adorable!

None of our grandbabies are toddlers anymore (or yet) but I think I shall get some clear plastic party bags from the Dollar Store and save for a toddler gift that I'm sure I will need sometime in the future.

This really was a super simple craft and would be great for kids to do. It's such a neat transformation and a great way to repurpose broken crayons.

Happy Crafting!