Saturday

DIYP #8- Recycled Crayons


I have an easy DIYP for this weekend!  It's fun and kid-friendly. And it's a great lesson in recycling.

My kids love crafts, especially my oldest daughter.  About 42.9 times a week (averages higher in the summer) she wants to get crafty.  It's exhausting and she doesn't believe that folding clothes is considered an art form in some remote places.

The other day, the kids were coloring and drawing.  It began to lose it's appeal and the craft begging began.  I took one look at their pathetic collection of old, broken crayons and before I had a chance to call myself a bad mom, I said:

1. Tear the paper off of broken crayons. 



2. Place broken crayons into paper liners of muffin tin.  (We did all different colors:  red, white, blue, pastels, Christmas colors.)



3. Preheat oven to 275 degrees and bake crayons for 10 minutes. (My kids loved watching these melt in the oven).


4. Let them cool and peel off paper.


5. Impress your kids. Just like that!



My toddler thought they looked good enough to eat!




In the winter edition of Family Fun Magazine, I saw this same idea. But they put the crayons in heart-shaped muffin tins and attached them to Valentine's. My kids would love to share these with their friends.

37 comments:

Marie Stork said...

How fun! I just might have to be crafty next week. My kids love crafts also but I'm not crafty so I tell them to wait for school and enjoy them there. I'm terrible I know--but I think I could handle this. Thanks for the idea.

Anonymous said...

Thats such a cute idea! We will have to do this one day!

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Hey, that is pretty cool. My kids are absolutely dying of boredom as I can't entertain them while I constantly breastfeed 5-month-old twins. We have TOO many broken crayons laying around, so I am DEFINITELY going to do this! Thanks!

Kisha said...

This is one that I love and should be a lot of fun to do.

bunchofbull-ers! said...

Thanks for another great idea! ;O)

Threeundertwo said...

Aha! Now you've stolen one from me.

Are we related?

We actually did ours out in the sun on a hot day. Because we're dumb. And we like blobby lumpy crayon things.

Yours are better.

Joy said...

We are SOOOO doing this!!! My little ones just broke a ton of crayons today... makes me want to go and BUY some crayons, too, just to do this. I think GLITTER ones would be fantastic!

KWolfAK said...

That's a good idea. I bet my son would love to melt crayons...of course her in AZ we just have to leave them outside for an hour!

Anonymous said...

I'll definitely do this one on a snowy day this winter. Thank you. What an awesome idea.

Phyllis said...

What FUN! I'm tucking this craft idea away for the near future for sure! TFS.

Anonymous said...

Awesome! I was just thinking that I needed to replace our crayons and I was just going to throw the old ones away. This came at a perfect time! Thanks!

care-in said...

This would make a great little gift to put with valentine's. We made play-doh hearts and added those with our valentine's.

Anonymous said...

My son gets so upset when crayons break. He has asked me to tape them together before and it inspired a blog post once about my reluctance to tape them knowing it wouldn't hold vs the heartbreaking look on his face about the fate of the broken crayon.

This might solve that problem! He'll love saving them (might even make more...) and creating new ones!

Thanks for the great DIYP!

Anonymous said...

Every time I buy crayons the first thing my daughter does is peel them. My house becomes carpeted with little pits of crayola paper. Why do crayons even have paper on them? Imagine all the trees going to waste just so my three year old can watch me try to vacuum the stairs around a huge pregnant belly.

Sandra said...

We used to do this when I was young! When my boys get a little older we'll have to try it too.

Anonymous said...

I wrote a post about this a few months ago, because we made these as party favors for my daughter's birthday party. We call them Scribble Cookies. We put an assortment in decorative bags, and tied homemade labels on with ribbon. They were a big hit with the kids!

Life in the Crazy Lane said...

I LOVE my Family Fun Magazine! I'm constantly giving subscriptions to all my mommy friends. They have great ideas for crafts, vacations, birthdays, meals ... LOVE IT!!!

Moriah @ Please Pass the Salt said...

I have a friend who used to be a teacher and they used to do that with all the leftover preschool crayons.

My kids still just eat them so we don't use them too often :)

Anonymous said...

I recall seeing that issue for the heart shaped crayons, but I'm not going to wait. We'll do this next week and my girls will love to see the transformation.

Summer said...

That's a fun craft project. We did that last year with all the old, broken crayons and had a blast coloring rainbow pictures.

Anonymous said...

cute idea!

World's Greatest Mommy said...

Awesome idea! You could do red, white, and blue in star shapes for the 4th.

We've got an endless supply of broken crayons, so this is perfect.

Anonymous said...

We love to make these. But I have to say cupcakes smell better in the oven...

gina said...

As soon as the points wear down I buy knew crayons- this would ease my guilty consience about being wasteful!

Tara @ Feels Like Home said...

My babe is too little for crayons just yet, but this is a great idea that I'll keep tucked away... somewhere.

So glad to hear that your oldest is okay.

Rae said...

My mom used to do this with us! And I thought she was just making something up to keep her from going crazy...

Well, I guess you can hit two birds with one stone after all.

Heidi Zawisza said...

I've done this before, and it is sooo fun! My kids love it! The valentine thing is a GREAT idea!

Tammy said...

Here's my tip for the day: DON'T leave unattended crayons from a restaruant in the car door handle area in the HOT days of the Southern summer or you will make those without even knowing it.

Instant surprise!

Genny said...

I know what you mean about crafts getting exhausting! My daughter loves to do projects. I love this idea and I think my kids would, too. Thanks!

Ane said...

I need to do this next time, instead of tossing them in the trash! Thanks for the tip!

I added your button to my sidebar!

Natalie Witcher said...

Oh, that is super! I'm so glad there are people out there who are much craftier that I am!

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous idea! I LOVE this one! I'm so doing it....

Anonymous said...

I've always wanted to try this. Looks very easy. I think I just might! ;)

Louise said...

I work with children and we always have leftover crayons. What a fabby way to do these. Will need to do a conversion for the temp but can't wait to return after the holidays and tell everyone about it. Thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

That is an awesome idea- We definitely got some used crayons over here at the Pond House!

Mom to 5...Daughter of the King said...

My mom used to do this for us when we were kids.....I feel a project coming on!!

Colleen - Mommy Always Wins said...

Cool!