Oct 16
Doesn’t that sound nice and dramatic? :)
So Emily’s crayons were getting a little crazy. They were chewed, broken, and generally kinda gross. And hazardous to our newly-mobile Jacob. And hazardous to our walls. I mean all it takes is one little bit of overlooked crayon left on the floor, and the living room walls are a pre-pre-K art project.
Somewhere on someone’s blog a long, long time ago, I saw pretty little crayon cakes made by melting crayons in a muffin tin. So I searched the Internets and found that there are only about a gazillion different directions for this project. So I’m gonna tell you what I did using the materials I had on hand.
Supplies:
- broken crayons
- mini-muffin tin
- cooking oil
- cooling rack
- oven :)
Directions:
- Peel paper off crayons (if your child hasn’t already), and break each crayon into about 4 pieces.
- Separate by color or however you wish into greased muffin tin. I think it would be fun to experiment with color here, but I separated the Roy G. Bivs, browns, and then all the leftover neutrals (black, white, and greys). Oh, and don’t overfill the vessels.
- Heat oven to 275 degrees. You can probably stick the pan in anytime before the oven is fully heated.
- Monitor crayons carefully. Mine took about 12 minutes to melt.
- Carefully remove and place pan on cooling rack (keep pan as level as possible).
- After the crayons have hardened, flip over pan and tap on each vessel to release crayons. I was surprised by how easily they came out. But I did use something large and metal to “tap” on the pan.
- Voila! Go color something.
October 16th, 2008 at 7:05 am
I really want to make these this year with my students…do you think it would fit into the “cooking” block on fridays???
October 16th, 2008 at 7:50 am
I just “happened” to watch this video with my kids a few minutes ago, and then while they got settled at the table for breakfast, I clicked over here to read this by you - neat-o! Will have to do with the kids tonight while Eric is working late :)
October 16th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Now that’s a project we need to do TODAY. Thanks!
October 16th, 2008 at 9:17 am
This totally brings back memories when my mom did the same with us when we were kiddos! I love it! They were like Resse’s peanut butter shaped crayons! Did she like them? BTW, I’m so glad you shared your blog…we miss you and Evan and I love your pictures of what your are doing. We’ll have to talk camera sometime! See ya!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:36 am
This is just the coolest idea ever. Wish I had known about this when you were little!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Your photos are GORGEOUS! This makes me want to do this and I don’t even have kids!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am
That is such a cool idea. We have plenty of broken crayons lying around. I’ll have to try this! Was Emily confused with the newly shaped goods? Did she know what to do with them?
October 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am
That reminds me, our crayons are all busted too! I tried this a while ago, but they weren’t melting well. I think it’s time to do it again! It might calm some people down around here.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
How fun! I loved making these as a kid. And it always prompted my dad to remind us that he used only one box of 8 crayons his entire childhood and we were very spoiled (*groan*)
October 16th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
mmm, crayon muffins… just kidding but that is really a cool idea.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Now that’s a craft project I can handle!!!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
looks fun! makes me want to color :)