Recycled Crayons

What do you do with all those broken crayons? Turn them into a fun craft project, of course. Although, I will say, I think I had as much or more fun than the kids did on this one. I actually started breaking apart only slightly used crayons to make these. (True, I always stock up at the beginning of the school year, but that is beside the point.)

To make, cut the wrapper off your crayon - I recommend a slit down the side with a box cutter versus tearing the paper off manually - and break the crayon into pieces. Then, put the broken pieces into a muffin pan.

You can use a regular muffin pan, but I found that those end up so big they are hard to use. Instead, I use a mini-muffin pan. I had a friend who used a mini-donut pan, and those looked really cool, but I don't have one. In these pictures, I actually lined the pans with foil, but it was a real pain, and since we don't use the mini-muffin pans for muffins, I did the next batch with no foil. (Maybe a trip to the thrift store is on the horizon.) Bake your crayon bits at 300 degrees. Your time required depends on the number of crayons and size of the muffin pan. With the mini I started checking at 5 minutes. The ones that weren't as full were definitely entirely melted, but the more full ones weren't done yet. You need to balance and not over cook because over-cooking (aside from smelling really melty) seems to separate the color from the wax and produce uneven color distribution in the crayon. When the crayons are just melted, remove from oven. I dragged a toothpick around the top of the crayon soup to give them a marbled look, but it doesn't really effect anything but the top layer.

Then, I popped them in the freezer to set. When they were hard, I rocked the edges of the pan back and forth (like an ice-cube tray) and whacked them upside down on the counter. They came out pretty smoothly.

The pan is no longer food-friendly, but we have cute crayons. They work really well for covering large areas, but not for detail coloring. Also, have fun putting different color combinations together, I am always surprised at what comes out nicely and what looks gross. Oh, don't stir when they come out of the oven unless you are hoping to blend into one solid color.