How to Make Crayons at Home
Many people with kids find that they have boxes of broken pieces of crayons. It's easy to buy a new box of crayons when the old get worn down, but it seems wasteful to just throw the others away. Instead, recycle your old, broken crayons into new crayons that you shape yourself. This is a project that you and your children can do together. Toddler and preschoolers can learn about colors and sorting while they help you. When finished you'll have new crayons with a chunky shape that little hands can hold easily.
Things You'll Need
- Old crayons
- Muffin tin
- Cupcake liners or non-stick cooking spray
- Wax paper
Instructions
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1
Sort your old crayons into groups by color. This is a good step for your kids to help you with. The colors don't have to be exact, just sort together all the colors in the same family.
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2
Peel the paper off of the crayons.
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3
Put the crayons still grouped by color into an old muffin tin lined with two or three layers of cupcake liners or sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Fill each section about one-half full.
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4
Put the muffin tin into the oven and bake at 200 degrees F for about ten minutes until the crayons have melted.
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5
Remove tin and let your new crayons cool. You can let them cool and harden all the way and then pop them out for chunky circle-shaped crayons. If you want another shape, then let them cool slightly so that they are still warm and pliable. Take them out of the tins and shape them into whatever shape you want.
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6
Let them finish cooling and hardening on wax paper.
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1
Tips & Warnings
You can mix the colors if you want multicolored swirl crayons. Put the melted crayons in freezer to speed up the hardening process.
Take care when removing the crayons from the oven. The tin and crayons will be hot. Supervise children when working around the oven. An adult should put the crayons in and take them out of the oven.
