Welcome to Teach Me Tuesday! I spend a lot of time each week reading all of the great DIY tips out there in Blogland. Because there are so many fabulous projects that I can’t wait to try, I figured that it would be fun to feature some of my very favorites here each Tuesday.
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It’s the time of year when I start stressing out about little gifts for Zack’s classmates. I’m not sure why it always sneaks up on me, but I end up running around like a chicken with its head cut off during the last week of school.
Well, not this year! Christy at BeachBrights has saved me by offering a great tutorial for turning broken crayons into colorful crayon shapes. This is one I’ve seen before, but I’ve never actually tried it. Christy’s pictures are so delightful…could this solve your classmate gift dilemma, too?
Christy shows us how:
I know this project has been done like a thousand times BUT I have never done this. Max has been feeling a little under the weather, so I thought this might keep him calm for like 5 minutes or so. It worked!Now, I bought new boxes of crayons. Yes, don’t judge, it was just easier. Since, Max has never liked crayons or art or drawing or crafting, I don’t have used crayons laying around my house. Hence the new. I also bought this “cookie” pan from Walmart. I wanted Christmas shapes.Basically this is the craft in a nut shell:1. Peel paper off crayons. Why this was hard, I don’t know. Maybe it was my cheap-o crayons but the paper was hard to peel off. Like 5 year old hard.2. Break crayons into small pieces.3. Spray cookie sheet/muffin tin with cooking spray. This is the label from the pan I bought at Walmart.4. Place broken crayon 3/4 full into cookie sheet spaces or muffin tins.5. It looks better if you place red-orange-pink-yellow together and blue-green-purple together. Otherwise, the colors can run together and make brown.6. Preheat oven to 350 and cook for about 8 minutes.7. When they are 100% liquid, take out of the oven. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then place in the freezer for faster cooling or not.8. Ta-Da!
Wow! I love the little Christmas-themed shapes, Christy. I think I will do something similar and package them in cute cellophane bags with a few pieces of candy or maybe even a little notepad. I know Zack’s preschool classmates will be thrilled!
Do you think you could make melted crayon shapes for the young children in your life?
Love the idea – but afraid small children would think they were cookies and try to eat them,
Those are adorable!!!!
Suzanne
Maybe tie them to a coloring book……so, so cute
Thanks Lindsay! You make me look good and drive my traffic numbers through the ceiling!!
Happy Holidays
XOXO
So cute! My grandmother used to let my brother and I do this with our crayons that were broken etc and it was so much fun. We always just used the typical muffin pan, but what a cute idea to use those fun shapes! I must do this with my toddler soon!
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Lindsay! I love the crayon idea. I love your blog, especially all of your great Pottery Barn ideas. I'm already thinking about what my house will look like after Christmas….I love the linen Cafe pillows from PB. Do you think you could make them and show us how? They are too pricey for my budget!
We use only washable crayons and my kids destroy them. It was getting kind of expensive. So we did something similar. IKEA has these cute plastic ice cube molds for under $2. We loaded the crayon bits into that and placed it in the microwave for a hot minute. Then into the freezer it goes. Twist to pop out and enjoy.
It's very inexpensive, the mold is small and flexible for storage and there's no oil, oven heat or mess. We like.
I love those shapes! My kids love doing this when their crayons turn into a pile of broken bits after a while. I need to get a little more creative what we melt them in. Round seems boring now.
A wonderful idea! I've seen this done with mini muffin tins before, which is functional but not cute. These are functional AND cute!
What a fun project. I love it. Hugs, Marty
that's a great idea! can't wait to do it!
I have always wanted to try this. Don't know why I haven't. We have tons of broken crayons! The patterned mold is a great idea!
This is a FABULOUS idea!!!! Thanks for sharing!
Made these last week in Christmas tree shapes! The kids LOVED helping! And they turned out so cute!
Very cute, but I hope the kids realize they are crayons and NOT candy! Might want to package them seperately and label the ones crayons or they might just take a bite!!!
What a neat idea! These would be fun year round with other shapes. And I think it would only take kids one waxy lick or nibble to realize these weren't tasty treats! Kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for
I made these the other day – I need to get some cool shapes though. Anyways I found that running an x-acto knife down the paper that it comes easily – just watch your fingers.
Is it wrong that I want to make these for myself?! So cool!
Linsday you are a life saver. I completely forgot about the kids in Cooper's class and ran out and got the stuff to do this! Now I won't be the mom that forgot!
I made these for the flower girls and ring bearer in my wedding. I used a heart shaped silicone muffin pan. The crayons pop right out and look great!
Actually I saw star remelted/recyled crayons for sale somewhere that escapes me. they said they were very popular with kids because when one point wears down you still have 4 others to color with.
I've been searching for large crayons – like in a ball shape or something – for my one year old who had NO IDEA how to hold a crayon yet…just something he could hold in his fist would work. This is the solution to my problem! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm linking this post to my blog.
OMGosh! I am so excited you posted this! I have been searching for something fun yet inexpensive to give the kids in my son's daycare class.
) I'm going to package them w/a little Christmas coloring book. Thanks for sharing!!
i love this idea!
Love this idea. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the commenters for adding suggestions!
I made these in heart shapes for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago, but the colors seemed to swirl together into brown when I moved the pan to get it out of the oven.
Maybe I put too many colors into one area. I think I will look for a cool molded pan like that and try again!
I did this as favor's for my twins' first birthday party and made butterfly shapes to go with the theme. I think they turned out well!
http://mybabyfaves.blogspot.com/2009/09/craftastic-update-recycled-chunky.html
What a fabulous idea! This is something I will definitely be doing. My daughter made some custom note pads for her MIL. You can see it at uswheelers.blogspot.com. For some reason, it won't let me paste the link.
My kids would love those!
K, I made them, photographed them, and bagged them up as favors for the kids at our cookie party tomorrow!
http://design-aholic.blogspot.com/2009/12/holiday-crayon-crayons.html
Thanks for the idea!
I love this idea – so easy! Also – if you have broken crayons and you don't want to do this project, send them to the Crazy Crayons recycling program http://www.crazycrayons.com
yay! I teach 1st grade and I'm always looking for cheap (ok, free because I have 18 gazillion crayons) gifts for my students. They will love these…thank you so so much!
My 4 year old son and I just did this craft today to send to our pen pal friends. We had the best time and they turned out great!! One thing that made it easier for me was using an Xacto knife to slice down the length of the crayon first. Made that step fly by! Thanks for posting this! You have officially helped me get into the Christmas spirit!
Just wanted to add that the wilton treat bags are a perfect fit for this size crayon. Come see what we did with them here http://favorswithlove.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-crayons.html.
Thanks so much for sharing this tutorial. Love it!
I just saw this and think this would make for a cute valentine. Print some customized clip-art/ coloring page valentine's and place a few heart-shaped crayons in a cellophane baggie. Cute, original and easy!!! thank you for the reminder on melting crayons.
I must say, for those few folks who are worried the kids might think they’re cookies or candy, tell them! Even if they don’t get the hint, it’s just wax, it won’t do any harm if they take a bite and find out they are yucky. If they then continue to try to eat the crayons, then I think you’ve got a bigger problem than whether crayons look like cookies/candy or not.
Hmmm i wonder if, while your coloring with them, the colors would blend, or just switch immediately.
i made these in my muffin tins but when they hardened back up i couldn’t get them out the muffin tin. i ended up throwing the whole thing away. i think next time i will use paper baking cups thingys lol