Homemade Crayons! (sort of?)

Several weeks ago, Mini-Me and I decided to make our own crayons. Technically, we didn't make our own...we made different crayons out of the ones we already had. Either way, it was a pretty cool experience and she's carried them proudly in her backpack since.
Want to make your own crayons? It's easy!

Supplies:
Old, broken crayons
Muffin Tin - old one if you have it
Oven
Squealing six-year-old

First, peel the labels off of the crayons and break them into 1in. long pieces.  Don't expect your kiddo to want to do this - he/she will get bored around four minutes in.  If you're having a problem getting the labels off, just soak them in a bowl of hot water for ten minutes first and they'll slide right off!

Second, preheat your oven to 250. While waiting, arrange the crayons into the tins however you want. The artist in me wanted to make monochromatic and complimentary crayons with awesome combinations like reds/oranges or purples/yellows...Mini-Me decided to randomly throw together an array of colors that made zero sense and they turned out just fine - hard to color with, but they're interesting looking.

Third, turn your oven off and insert muffin tin. Check on it every few minutes and remove when the crayons are completely liquid - this takes about ten minutes.  Be very careful when moving the muffin pan as the liquid crayons will swirl, mess up your pattern, and turn into a uni-colored mess.

Let them completely cool, then flip the pan and pop the crayons out. Ta-Da!

I didn't have a problem with them sticking to the pan or cleaning the pan afterward - using hot water re-melted the wax and made removal quite easy.




Happy crafting!