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How to Recycle Crayons ~ Valentine’s Day Kids Craft

This project has it all – it is fun, inexpensive, quick, green and just plain cool. Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I decided we would share our fun craft in the form of Valentines. Who wants to place bets on which kid has the coolest Valentine’s in preschool?!

Recycled Crayon Valentines

Restaurants dole out crayons by the handful. I try to refuse them when I can, but more often than not we wind up adding crayons to our collection. Since I can’t bare to throw anything away, we have more crayons than any kid can use. In addition to restaurant crayons galore, we have an ever growing collection of broken bits. The craft gives all of those extra crayons and broken bits new life.

What you need:

  • Crayons – lots of them
  • Silicone candy mold

Remove the wrappers from your crayons and break into bits. Fill your mold with the bits. Place your mold on a cookie sheet (for support – trust me on this), and melt in the oven on 230 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes. (I put them in for 12 minutes, but they needed a bit more time so I watched until they were fully melted.)

TIPS

  • If making crayons with little ones who won’t be able to help in the label removal process, remove the labels before inviting them to “help.” It is a process.
  • For my mini heart mold, I used approx 2 1/2 crayons per heart. (So for a 12-hole mold, plan on 30ish crayons)
  • Want bigger crayons? This mold makes 2 1/2 inch hearts.
  • After you make crayons in your mold, you won’t want to make food. Some of the cheap crayons will stain the mold.

How to Make Recycled Crayons
Once the crayons cool (several hours) pop them out and ta-da! You will be amazed how cool your new crayons look – I know I was! I’ve been wanting to do this with K for some time, and now that we finally got around to it I want to do it again with different shapes.

To make your own Valentines, download this printable. You will get six Valentine’s per 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I printed mine on white card stock and backed with red card stock that I edged with fancy scissors, but I added red border to the printable so you don’t have to.

Hint – use rubber cement to adhere your crayons to the paper so the crayons will come off easily and cleanly.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

How to Recycle Crayons

Related

Crafts, DIY, Green Living DIY, kid's craft, Recycle, recycled crayons, valentine's day

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amy V. says

    February 1, 2012 at 1:51 pm

    I’ve wanted to do a craft like this for ages. So cute!

    Reply
  2. Kelly @ Texas Type A Mom says

    February 2, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    This is such a cute idea! My daughter has a ton of broken crayons that I’ve saved so this would be the perfect project for her. Now to get the silicone candy mold…

    Reply
  3. Jenn @therebelchick says

    February 3, 2012 at 8:10 am

    What a fantastic idea!

    Reply
  4. Paula @ Frosted Fingers says

    February 8, 2012 at 7:27 pm

    They turned out so cute!

    Reply
  5. Lorrie Walker says

    February 14, 2012 at 9:51 am

    I love this idea. I did it several years ago when I was the exec. dir. of a Keep America Beautiful affiliate. We made star shapes and gave them to students when we went to classrooms and gave talks. They were a huge hit!

    Reply
  6. Joy Pablo says

    February 16, 2012 at 9:58 pm

    I love this!! SO cool. Im not throwing away our bits of crayons anymore and am making these for my daughter’s classroom next year =)

    Reply
    • jen says

      February 16, 2012 at 10:21 pm

      They were a HUGE hit in my daughter’s class!

      Reply
  7. getSNAZZY.com - Jessica says

    February 16, 2012 at 11:44 pm

    Fun! We made heart crayons too. Very cute. I love the scalloped edges of your cards 🙂

    Soak the crayons in water first and the wrappers come off easily!

    http://www.getsnazzy.com/2012/02/heart-crayons/

    Reply
  8. Ingrid says

    March 12, 2012 at 1:57 pm

    I did this for my son’s 2nd birthday party! I poured the melted crayons into a tractor mold to go with the theme!

    Reply
  9. R Hicks says

    March 28, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    what a fun and novel way to recycle all those old broken crayons and also teach the kids a lesson about recyling

    Reply
    • jen says

      March 28, 2012 at 5:06 pm

      It’s quite fun! We’ve passed around our mold to all of K’s friends to make their own 🙂

      Reply
  10. Bonny says

    March 28, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    I love the idea!

    Reply
  11. Maria says

    January 15, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    I would love to do this for my daughter’s class. What would your opinion be on lining the trays so the crayons don’t stain…I would like to be able to reuse the trays…

    Reply
    • jen says

      January 16, 2014 at 9:52 pm

      The problem with lining the trays is that any wrinkle would show up in the finished crayons. IDK if there is anything you could spray on the pan first…? Not sure. But I assure you, you would not want to eat something made out of them. I have cleaned them several times and they still have a wax residue. That said, I have used them for lots of other projects! 🙂 Good luck and let me know if you come up with something.

      Reply
  12. MICHELE says

    January 19, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    I have a metal pan would that work too?

    Reply
    • jen says

      January 20, 2014 at 9:25 pm

      I think it would. You should probably use a non-stick spray. With the silicone, I was able push them out with my fingers. It might be hard to pop them out without spraying them first.

      Reply
    • Leslie D says

      February 8, 2014 at 3:50 pm

      Yes and there is no need to line it with anything. the cayons should pop right out no matter which kind of pan you use.

      Reply
  13. Debbie says

    January 29, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    This is GREAT, going to make for my SS class.

    Reply
  14. Heather says

    February 13, 2014 at 8:52 am

    Thank you for this great tutorial. Easy and everyone loved them at our school and activities!

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Jen

I'm an Orlando, FL mom, a blogger and a social media junkie. I love anything crafty, Disney, Gator football, chocolate, green living, flip-flops and family movie nights.
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