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?!
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.
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!
Amy V. says
I’ve wanted to do a craft like this for ages. So cute!
Kelly @ Texas Type A Mom says
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…
Jenn @therebelchick says
What a fantastic idea!
Paula @ Frosted Fingers says
They turned out so cute!
Lorrie Walker says
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!
Joy Pablo says
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 =)
jen says
They were a HUGE hit in my daughter’s class!
getSNAZZY.com - Jessica says
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/
Ingrid says
I did this for my son’s 2nd birthday party! I poured the melted crayons into a tractor mold to go with the theme!
R Hicks says
what a fun and novel way to recycle all those old broken crayons and also teach the kids a lesson about recyling
jen says
It’s quite fun! We’ve passed around our mold to all of K’s friends to make their own 🙂
Bonny says
I love the idea!
Maria says
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…
jen says
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.
MICHELE says
I have a metal pan would that work too?
jen says
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.
Leslie D says
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.
Debbie says
This is GREAT, going to make for my SS class.
Heather says
Thank you for this great tutorial. Easy and everyone loved them at our school and activities!