Recycled Crayons Tutorial

I thought I would share some tutorials every month or so! This month's tutorial is recycled crayons. Sure they've been done plenty of times, but I thought I'd give it my own spin! :) Special Thanks to AEBABY for suggesting this one!

Gather your materials, here are my suggested ones:

Crayola Crayons. Do not skimp on this. Non Crayola's will smell, not melt well and not work well.

Exacto Knife

Silicone mold

Plastic Soap Mold (optional)

Aluminum Cans (optional)

Aluminum foil

Baking Sheets

• Peel your crayons. If you don't have a small child handy to do this for you, use the exacto knife to cut a slit down the crayon paper. If it is a pain to pull the paper off, cut the slit, then put the crayons in the freezer for about 30-60 minutes. The paper should pop right off then!

• Break the crayons and put them in the mold. If you are using a silicone mold you can just fill your mold with the broken crayons. If you want a multi colored crayon, mix them together. I'll show you how to do solids or layers in a bit!

• Set your oven to approx. 325-350F. Silicone molds can go directly in the oven, but because of their flexibility, you probably want to put the mold ON a baking sheet for stability. This is particularly important if you are doing layers.
• Melt the crayons in the oven, checking them every 5 minutes or so. You want them melted but not TOO hot. Once you see nearly all the crayons are completely melted, your crayons are done!

• Let the crayons cool until completely hard and then, pop them out of the mold!! If you choose to use a metal pan, you would want to spray the pan lightly with cooking spray so the crayons slide out easier. This is one of the reasons I prefer the silicone molds--plus they come in way more fun shapes!!

Viola!!

• Now say you want to do solids or layered crayons, or use a plastic soap mold? No problem! Gather your aluminum cans (like the ones that hold vegetables). Clean, rinse and remove the paper label. Break your crayons and separate the colors in each can.

• The color you melt in your cans will stain the can, so once you put a color in a can, it's staying that color! So save them for future use!
• Put the cans on the baking sheets (you can do this at the same time you do a silicone mold) and heat for the same time, 5 minutes at a time @ 325-350 degrees until the crayons are totally melted.

• Using your OVEN MITTS pour one color into the plastic soap molds at a time. Allow the crayons to cool SLIGHTLY before pouring, but not so long that they start to harden again. Put your soap mold on top of wax paper, aluminum foil, etc just in case the crayons melt the plastic and it leaks. (Which is why you wait until they cool a little.)

• It's okay if it spills just a tad, you can easily 'carve' the extra off your finished crayon once it hardens. Or get every little use out of it and let your little ones color the extra away!
• Once the colors harden just turn the soap mold over and GENTLY tap the crayons out. If you hold the mold too far above your counter/table they'll crack as they fall out and hit the hard surface. 

And there you go! Solid colored car crayons!

• If you want layered crayons, all you need to do is take a deep mold like a silicone mold. Melt the crayons in the cans as above. Pour a layer in your silicone mold. Let each layer harden before you melt and pour another! The hardest part of layered crayons is to pour the colors very carefully into the silicone mold so it does not splash up. If you pour slowly and carefully you will get clean, uniform, layered crayons!

Feel free to leave any questions, comments or share this tutorial!

~~Amy

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