New crayons from old
Clare has been at me to make her some new crayons from old broken ones after seeing (and buying) some recycled crayons at Made’n’Thornbury last weekend. There are loads of tutorials on the net explaining how to do this – I used this one and this one as a guide, so I’m not claiming to be doing anything original. Here’s our version:
Peel the paper off the bits of old broken crayon, and place the crayon pieces into an old muffin tin. Clare chose to keep her crayons in colour groupings, but you could really go to town with how you combine them.
I pre-heated the oven to 150 degrees C, and placed the tin into it. Melting crayons smell a lot like melting candles. We kept a fairly close eye on them and I think it only took around 10 minutes for them to look like this.
We’d missed taking the paper wrapping off one of the yellow crayons – you can see it in the photo, unmelted. After letting the tray cool down for about 10 minutes I popped it in the freezer. And when it was nice and cold and the crayons were completey hard Clare levered them out of the tin.
They’re nice and chunky and she’s really enjoyed seeing what effects she can get colouring with these. Stella has enjoyed them too.
To finish the fun for the day the girls got their hands into some goop made from cornflour, water and food colouring (there are lots of recipes for this on the net too – try here or here or here or here).
I’d never played with goop before (shame on me, former science teacher!) and it was loads of fun. I highly recommend it!
What a fantastic idea!!! Thanks so much for the tutorial links, this is one I am def going to try.
I loved those crayons at Made N Thornbury, but didn’t buy any as my bub’s only a year old. Can you use the muffin tin for baking again after doing crayons, or is that why you used an old one?
My wee girl loves her crayons from the market, and she also loves goop at kinder. Thanks for the links and the tutorial.
This is such a good idea – I’ve been meaning to do this with our leftover crayons for some time, the chunkier ones are much more hardwearing that the thin crayolas.
Goop !!! I love love love goop ……
they are fantastic! thanks for the links 🙂
great idea!! i’m so bummed i’ve thrown out a whole tub of crayons that would have been perfect for this!! thanks for sharing the links!
Oh how cute! The girls look so much like you!
When I feel brave enough, I think we’ll have to have a crack at goop. Mind you I am still cleaning up after Master 2 painted his feet the other day and walked all over the floor boards!
cool, I made oddles of play dough, for my kids and once fingerpaint. Don’t think goop was invented yet. Looks like fun!
We made the crayons one year. Here’s a tip. Use good crayons no tthe cheapee ones. The oil seperates and only half of the crayon works. 🙂 Still fun to make though.
I am in love with the last photo 😉 Great!!!
These are delightful, and I think your girls are adorable.