Mini Muffin Crayons!

Max loves crayons.

Max also loves to dump out the bin FULL of crayons.

Broken crayons suck.

I decided to "make lemonade" and took all the little broken crayon bits and melted them into chunky little round multi colored crayons. These are much more difficult to break and there are so fewer little bits for me to pick up/make Max pick up when he dumps them. Win-win. :)

Step 1: Peel all the paper off your crayons. This is not as easy or fun as I seemed to think it was when I was little. Definitely the most annoying part of the whole process. If your kids are old enough to help, for sure enlist their services.

Step 2: Break crayons into bits small enough to fit in your mold. I used a mini-muffin tin sprayed with non-stick vegetable oil spray. It would be super fun if you had cute shapes like stars or hearts and what a great little party favor (or activity!) that you could also use as a class gift or just about anything. This is one awesome kid craft in my book. I thought the melting process was really pretty. Heat your oven to 275 and leave them in there around 7-10 minutes depending on how fat your crayons are- just keep an eye on them.

I chose to group mine by color (some mixing is fine- (silver in with your blues, white with just about anything). With as long as I felt they should stay in to melt properly it seemed like there was just too much mixing going on to really have different color families within one crayon, but you see what works for you.

You might be able to see some little chunks on top here- I left them in longer after this was taken to get those melted but I think I filled my cups a bit too full. You want them up to the rim and a little over but not a lot or you'll spill wax in your oven like I did.

Step 3: Let them cool!

Make sure you let them cool entirely on their own. The first time I tried this I popped them into the freezer to speed things along and nearly all of them split down the middle from the temperature change.

I was actually pretty jazzed with all the cool marbled overflow however and made some prints

by laying paper on top. This of course made me start to wonder about dabbling in encaustics, but I've also been thinking of learning to bellydance and that's better for me and probably cheaper.

How delicious are these little finished crayons? I adore them and Max seems to be enjoying them as well. If I have any critique it's that so far it seems like you might have to press harder to get the full color but Max doesn't seem to mind.

Step 4: Remove them from the mold.

So easy and fun! Once they are entirely cooled they are simple to get out. I placed the tin upside down on the counter and gave each cup a little whack with the handle of a knife and they came out like a dream.

Max got right to work doing something very busy with these as soon as he had access. Later I discovered he'd been sorting them. That'll do, Pig. ♥