Hi Everyone
Slight departure from the papercrafting here but I wanted to start sharing some of the kids crafty things I have been doing.
My kids-crafting ideas are more about fun things you can make and give to your kids to play with (therefore creating more time for yourself for your own crafty stuff) than they are about doing crafty things with your kids! Of COURSE it depends on age – and mine are all pre-schoolers so attempting anything crafty with 3 of them is usually quite a mess!
Recycling Crayons
- Gather all your old and yukky crayons – peel off the paper (yep – i know you spend ages trying to tell your kids NOT to do that!)
- Sort into colours in order to take gratuitous colour photo
- Break up crayons and put into silicon moulds. I think this was an ice-cube tray (butterfly ice cubes – really?)
- Put into oven on really low heat (maybe 80 degrees Celsius?)
Wait (be patient – lots) as the crayons will eventually melt.
Let them cool and then press out of moulds.
As you can see from picture 4 – some of the crayons (especially the really cheap ones!) break down into some sort of component pigment/waxy mess – but when they harden up you can turn them out and….
they look great!
I had more fun than the kids doing this – and I was really pleased with the results!
Lowri 🙂
21 Comments
So pretty! I'd love to have you link up at my For the Kids Friday Link Party!
Stop on by!
http://SunScholars.blogspot.com
Those look great! I've been wanting to make some of these for my son (let's be honest, they'd really be for me . . . I doubt he'd appreciate them at only 6 months old) and I love how yours turned out!
Rachel
This is sooo cute, now I have to add – ADORABLE, CUTE, WHIMSICAL ICE CUBE TRAYS to my shopping list! Great job on these!
LOVE this idea- I now have a plan for Lola's semi-gnawed crayons. LOVE THIS IDEA!!! Beautiful photos if the project too.
crayon butterflies? ummm perfection! These are so much fun!
xoXOxo
Jenn @ Peas & Crayons
super cute! where did you get your molds?
These look great! I recently posted about making heart shaped crayons on my blog
This is a fun idea. Cute butterflies! I've been saving all our little crayon bits for melting. They make great little favors in goody bags!
wow, that is GREAT! I want to link from my blog, check us out at
http://www.bookwormfun.blogspot.com
Thanks so much for linking up with For the Kids Friday! I'll be posting the next link party tomorrow night. I can't wait to see what you have to share this week!
http://sunscholars.blogspot.com
These crayons were so dang cute I had to feature them on my blog, memyselfandtena@blogspot.com
Hello! I'm featuring you and your wonderful crayon idea on my blog today!
Feel free to come by and check it out!
http://anisfavoritethings.blogspot.com
Thanks for the great idea!
Any thoughts on how to get the molds clean once you are done? I tried re-heating them and cleaning them that way but it didn't work too well. My only other thought is Goo Gone but I don't have any on hand. Any thoughts that use stuff I already have at home?
This is sooo cute! And a great, green activity! I am a teacher and I would absolutely LOVE for you to link this post at my new blog "Your Green Classroom" or at least give me permission to link it. Thank you so very much!
Tabitha Carro
FlapJack Educational Resources
I'm back again =-) You have so many cute ideas I am now folllowing you by email too!!
This is fabulous!!! Would you please share this with our readers for Fun Stuff Fridays? http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2012/01/fun-stuff-fridays-5.html
I love it! My daughter would love something like this. Thanks for the idea!
alyschmuhl (at) gmail (dot) com
I love these! This may be a weird question – but are all silicon ice cube trays oven safe? I know you said you thought the butterfly one you used was an ice cube tray so thought I'd ask. I have a heart silicon ice cube tray that I'd love to make VDay crayons in if I could!
This is a fantastic idea. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for such clear instructions and gorgeous pictures, they've made me want to give these a try again. I did it once without proper instructions and I think I had the oven too high, they went very yucky and all came out the usual brown! I was planning to make them for a pre-school fund raiser, if they work I think they are ideal.
Thank you! Doing this for my students as a back to school gift!!