Making Crayons

This weekend we took some of our old and broken crayons, peeled the papers off, and melted them into new multi-colored crayons.

I used a silicon baking "pan" that I bought on clearance after Valentine's Day. We broke the crayons into small pieces (the larger crayons needed to be sliced with a kitchen knife), threw a mixture in each heart cup, and then "baked" them at 250 degrees for about 15 minutes. I was worried it would stink up the house (it didn't). They were very soupy when they came out of the oven.

But once they cooled, the colors really showed up and they were super easy to pop out of the silicon molds.

I love the way the colors stayed mostly separate, but blended together just a bit.

The verdict? These are great scribbling crayons, but not-so-much for actually coloring something, since what color you get is a little too unpredictable for my daughter the artist.

I thought it was fun and a great re-use for old crayons that otherwise would have just been thrown away.