Recycled Crayons

Yesterday with the help of three fabulous helpers, we made recycled crayons. Fun new shapes can be easy on little hands and less fragile. I used flexible silicon ice cube trays to make the long crayons, and chocolate molds to make the zoo animal faces pictured.

First sort your colors out, like colors with like colors.

Next peel off all of the paper and chop them up using a knife. My helpers also smashed them in a plastic bag with a hammer. That worked very well. The smaller the pieces the faster the crayons will melt.

There are many ways to melt crayons. I use the double boiler method because the crayons are less likely to burn or ignite. Crayons melt between 128-147 degrees Fahrenheit. Set the chopped/smashed color crayon pieces in a soup can and put it on the stove (I put it on high) in a pan of water.

Stir the pieces as they melt (I used old chopsticks). You can see some bumps in the yellow where the crayons are not completely melted yet. We poured the yellow crayons this way. There were bumps in the finished crayons, but I kind of like them that way. The other colors we waited till the wax was smooth like milk before pouring into the molds.

Next pour your wax into the molds. Careful, it is very hot. The crayons will harden quickly so you have to work a little fast.

Beautiful colors Thank you helpers, this was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy your new crayons.
Have fun!