Whatever do you do with all those pesky little broken crayon pieces? You upcycle them of course! Upcycling crayons is a fun and easy rainy day project to do with the kids, not to mention saving the crayons from the landfill doom!
You will need:
- Crayons {Crayola brand works best} (affiliate link
)
- Silicone mold (affiliate link
)
- Baking sheet {to support mold} (affiliate link
)
Instructions
Take all the broken crayon pieces and sort them into little piles or just wing it like I did. If you don't have any crayon pieces, then take new crayons and break them up. If the wrapper gives you any problems coming off, take a blade and cut down the wrapper and then peel. Crayola brand crayons work the best for upcycling. The cheap crayon brands tend to form a weird waxy layer that won't color. You might have a small amount of this with the Crayola brand, but nothing compared to the cheap ones. Make sure you place your mold onto the baking sheet BEFORE you begin to fill with crayons. I found my Wilton brand heart mold in the baking section at the craft store. You can also purchase it online on Amazon (affiliate link
I choose to do half and half colored crayons this go round, except for the one black and white cow print crayon. For the half and half colored crayons, I put one color in one side of my heart and another color in the other side. How many pieces you put in your mold will determine how "tall" your crayons come out. I made mine fairly thin. I use a whole crayon of each color, 2 total crayons per heart. Remember that the pieces will melt down. For the cow print, I mixed up black and white pieces within the heart. You could also just fill each bin with the same hues of color.
Place your crayon filled mold into the preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes at 250 degrees. Be careful not to tilt the pan when you take it out of the oven... though that could produce a neat look. Leave out to cool. At this point you could take a took pick and swirl your colors to make a blended, swirly effect.
Once the crayons cool {I'd give it a few hours}, they will have a dull waxy look to them. Pop each one out of the mold and turn over and voilà! You now have beautiful upcycled handmade crayons. You can package these for gifts, party favors, Valentine's Day, etc.
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