Craft Camp: Making Crayons

       If you are like me then you most likely have this totally random jar of busted up, broken down crayons hanging around your home. It seems like such a shame to throw them away- because again if you are like me you might have craft hoarding tendencies! I am not sure what I am saving all these bits and bobs for- perhaps one day when the world runs out of oil I will have the market cornered on crayon bits- at any rate until that day there they sit in our studio.

       A while back I had spotted this awesome Lego guy silicone ice cube tray at the Lego store- on a repeat visit to purchase a birthday gift for a school friend The Mr. picked one up for me- we work in synchronicity like that- yup we are pretty much perfect- cue internal laughter! So we take one large container of busted up crayon bits and one awesome silicone Lego ice cube tray- we throw them together and what do we get?

       First- before we throw them together we have the excruciating task of removing all those paper wrappers from the crayons- this is where tiny hands come in handy. The Littles were so excited about what we were about to do they happily unwrapped all the chewed up, busted, nose stuffed crayon bits- seriously you really do need to remove all the paper bits unless you want an oven fire.
   

         OK so half an hour later- yes! A half hour- they sat still for that long- semi quietly- unwrapping crayons! We finally get to the part where we decide what colours our new crayons will be- this is the super cool bit because if you put different colours together in one mold they will melt in a way that creates multi coloured colouring- which of course is awesome!

     Now this is the serious crafty bit- the mom part- where I tell you all the important safety stuff. There is no claim from Lego or any maker of silicone ice cube trays at all that says it is a great idea to put in in the oven- however these ice cube trays are dish washer safe- and are silicone- therefor from all info gathered on the interwebs safe for heat. The Internet would never lie would it? Still I did this on a day when we opened our doors wide and we had plenty of ventilation- honestly I was more worried about the smells from the cheap crayons melting- and we let our kids eat those. Still proceed with caution and never ever use these ice cube trays for ice cubes again!

      Fill your trays generously and heat your oven to 250 degrees- you will be melting your new crayons for about 15 minutes but all ovens are different so if yours runs a bit hot just keep an eye on things. You may want to check things at the 12 minute mark anyways as we needed to add more crayon bits- and by "we" I mean me.

       Once the crayon wax looks well melted remove tray from oven- yes it has overflowed in this picture and I am sure glad I put parchment paper on my cookie tray- Ugg the thought of cleaning my oven makes me want to drink even more! Anywho remove your tray and let cool for a few minutes while the wax sets up- then place in freezer to really cool. Pop out of tray and gently remove excess wax- voila your awesome new custom crayons!

       Break out those colouring books and enjoy! Colouring with different shapes makes crayons super cool again and these rad Lego crayons kept our Littles busy for the rest of the afternoon! Just to let all our friends know there is a very good chance that you will all be getting some of these in the coming days- they are completely addictive to make and equally entertaining for this Momma and all the kiddos!

P.S.- these little crayons would fit perfectly into a felt Easter Egg and I am sure the Easter Bunny likes to bring things like this to the egg hunt!

P.S.S- all the instructions I found on the old dot.com system indicate that you can make these goodies in the microwave but DO NOT microwave your silicone molds! You need to melt the crayon wax in a glass cup first the pour into molds- the only down side of that is you don't get the groovy colours.