Toolbox
- broken crayons
- empty metal cans
- plastic spoons
- silicone ice cube tray
Like most kids, my niece loves to color. She has a seemingly endless supply of crayons
The key to my solution is sorting the crayons into color families and melting them separately. The result is a beautiful, layered, rainbow crayon that isn’t muddled and is a joy to color with.
Step 1: Prepare the crayons
First, take all of the crayons and peel off any remaining paper (check out our crayon peeling tips for help). Then separate them into color families. I put all shades of red together in one cup, and the same for orange, green, and blue. For yellow, I tossed in the white and tan crayons, which I knew would blend well into the yellow. The result was fun array of colors.
The way you sort and select the crayons can vary depending on the design you want. I went for a rainbow approach, but you could easily adapt this to whatever colors your child likes. For example:
- shades of blue (for coloring skies)
- red, white, and blue (for the 4th of July)
- pinks and purples (for a little girl)
- red and green (for Christmas stocking stuffers)
Step 2: Select the mold
Next I selected the forms that I would use for my new crayons. I find that the best thing to use is a silicone ice cube tray
too.
Step 3: Melt the wax
Now dump one cup of crayons into an old food can that has been washed and dried. You’ll need something metal that can handle the heat as you can melt the crayons. Use a new can for each color. You can melt the crayons using one of the following two methods: Place the can on the rack in the oven and heat until melted or boil some water in a pan on the stove and then set the can inside until melted. With either method, please be sure to use an oven mitt because the can will get hot.
Use disposable plastic spoons to stir the wax until all chunks are melted and the wax is totally liquid. The spoons will also come in handy for filling the molds in a minute.
Step 5: Layer the wax in the molds
Wait until the can is just cool enough to touch, but the wax is still hot and thin. Do not let the wax cool, or you’ll have trouble working with it. Then use the spoon to carefully ladle wax into the molds. For my rainbow effect, I started with a thin layer of red then let it cool completely while I melted the orange wax. I then ladled in a thin layer of orange. I repeated these steps with yellow, green, and blue. (I had planned to use purple, too, but I ran out of room!)
After each layer, you may have some spills and drips. For best results, try to clean those out before you add the next color.
Step 6: Clean up the edges
Once you’ve added layers of color as you wish and your molds are full, let them cool and then flip them out onto the table. If you have any rough edges, you can smooth them down by coloring on a scrap piece of paper.
The result
I found that the triangle shapes are ideal for something like this because of the corners, which offer the best rainbows. They are also nice and chunky, which makes them very easy for toddlers to hold onto. What’s more, the flat edges keep them from rolling away on the tabletop, like regular crayons! This helps to avoid lost crayons and keeps the child’s play area neater.
Now hand these little beauties to the kids and watch them have fun making rainbows!
18 comments so far:
This is a wonderful idea for those leftover and broken crayons. I have a five year old with tons of crayons. I’m sure she has some that we can recycle. I will have to try this for a new and different touch on an old product.
That is a great idea for the Recycled Crayons. Ikea has fabulous
shapes and that would be super fun for the kids. Thanks for sharing.
Also, your site is great. You have lots of great projects and ideas.
Check out my post on making chunky crayons:
http://www.makeandtakes.com/recycled-chunky-crayons
Love the idea, my girlfriend is in design school and is always using Crayons to sketch and color. This would be perfect for stubs.
What great timing on finding this! I was just looking at the box of old broken crayons my son has, trying to figure out what to do with them
I have been looking for a fun way to recycle the crayons I have saved from the restaurant where I work. I was a little apprehensive about peeling all those crayons, so my mom suggested soaking them in warm water. It worked great. I soaked them for less than a minute, and I had nearly 200 crayons ready to go in less then 10 minutes. The paper just fell off!
Nikki, what a great idea to soak the crayons in water. I’m sure that saves quite a bit of headache!
I also love that you are rescuing the abandoned crayons from the restaurant. I’ll bet there are tons of them left on the tables every night.
I love this..I have 3 kids (2 love to draw and color) and work at a school. I’m going to ask the teachers to save the crayons instead of throwing them out. Oh I wish I would have seen this earlier in the school year.
I always tell my kids to take their crayons home. I figured they just got thrown away and they always use crayons at home. I wonder if restaurants would save them if you asked…hmm gonna check on that now
Perfect idea! I work as a preschool teacher and wanted to layer them like that but wasnt sure of a good way to do it. and your way seems very clean also! i just wish i would have seen it before breaking all the crayons into tiny little pieces. oh well!
Can’t wait for the kids to do this, i know they’ll love it!
Dawn, restaurants are a great idea. I bet if you gave them an empty coffee can to put near the bussing station that they would drop the crayons in for you, especially if you told them it’s for a school project.
Kylie, good luck with the kids. We’d love to see what you all create!
Thanks for all the great ideas! This will be perfect for my toddler since he can’t color with the toddler crayons available in stores. I will have to try this soon! I blogged about this at: http://goinggreenandsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2009/08/reusing-old-crayons.html
Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Christina. The chunkier crayons (which also won’t roll away) certainly do work better in little fingers!
Great Site
I do own a restaurant and always felt guilty throwing out the broken crayons, so I started saving them hoping to find a home for them. – sooo – if anyone wants my broken crayons and lives on Long Island, please email me at Mitchells-restaurant.com.
thanks for the great idea and it sure beats the $50+ price tag on a crayola crayon maker!! way more fun to make too!
Hi Sheryl. What a generous offer! If you haven’t found any takers yet, why not ask around to find friends with kids in Girl Scouts or some other group activity. I’ll bet you’ll find some takers
Andrea, you’re quite welcome! I definitely agree that this is a lot cheaper of a solution
this would be great for the airplane too as they dont roll away!
Wow, just wonderful, I will do this for sure.
Your methode is simple and very well explain.
Thanks a lot!
Ashley, that’s a great point!
Diane, thanks! We’d love to see what you create.