Never throw away another crayon. Whether its for use around the house or for a birthday goodie bag these recycled crayons are sure to be a hit!
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If you are a mom I’m willing to bet that you have crayons. If your kiddos are like mine then you probably have more broken ones than not. My preschooler is pretty good about taking care of crayons but the one year old? Forget it! If she’s not snapping them in half she eats the tips off.
These broken crayons used to get tossed immediately into the trash until I discovered that I could recycle them. Since then, I’ve saved a special tin for broken crayons and when it’s full we make new ones!
I’ve tried two different methods for recycling crayons. My first go round was with cookie cutters and more recently I’ve made them with silicone molds. Both methods get the job done but let’s just say I still have a mess from method one!
I melted the wax in one of my GOOD pots and then poured the melted wax into cookie cutters. The wax proceeded to ooze out of the cookie cutters and made a huge mess. Guess who still has hardened wax in her pot… Not my proudest moment.
Lesson learned though! I found silicone molds at a discount store for $1 and now making crayons is not only super fun but 100% mess free!
These Make Cool Gift Ideas
These are great to make for use around the house but don’t stop there!
Here’s What You’ll Need
crayons
baking sheet
Recycled Crayons Instructions
Break your crayons into tiny pieces and then remove the paper. For the stubborn pieces I found it helpful to carefully slice it open with a knife. For the most part we didn’t have any trouble. If you do, I’ve heard of some people soaking the crayons in water the night before to make the paper removal a lot easier.
Separate by color if you choose. I tried to color coordinate most crayons but for some we randomly tossed colors together. I love this blue swirl from the last batch we made.
Fill up your molds and place them onto a baking sheet.
Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes.
These take roughly an hour to cool at room temperature but to speed up the process you can place them in the freezer.
Once they are completely cooled, pop them out of the mold and voila! You have recycled crayons good as new, or shall I say better than new?!
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