Miss Murder’s Easy DIY: Cannibalizing Crayons

The kiddos are out of school so often that they hardly remember what it is. For example, summer vacation starts in two weeks and they’re out today for Staff Development. Really? The three of them fought, argued, broke one of my favorite dishes, and filled the sugar canister with water before 7:30 this morning. By 8:00 AM the garbage disposal was backing up, Thug Bunny had chewed his way through the Timothy hay bag and actually crawled inside, and I thought I was headed straight for the loony bin.

Did I mention I have deadlines? Did I also mention that I think I have the flu?

Cue something fun and easy to do that will provide happy distraction so I don’t mail the children out to friends and family as “birthday presents.” I don’t care when your birthday is. You’re getting a kid. 😉

I asked them to peel the wrappers from their broken crayons.

ImageThen we took a silicon ice cube tray that we had (make sure you’re using silicon) and did a quick shot of Pam in there so the crayons would pop out easily. They broke the crayons up and filled the tray.

ImageBake the crayons in the oven at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool, and then voila! New crayons. Hooray!

The screams of the melting crayons were sweet unto me. We frankensteined them together into something new and wonderful. Because. You know. I write dark fantasy and whimsical horror. 😉

 

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In our case, the tails snapped off of most of the crayons, so I’d suggest something like stars or hearts that don’t have tiny little parts that can break off. But they’re still cute and a great shape to color with. The girls have been coloring nonstop since we made them, so that’s a good sign.

I can already tell that it’s going to be a long, looooooooong summer. But I’m hoping the chickens and a few other activities will keep them happy without overwhelming me. That’s the balance, yeah?

If you do these, I’d love to hear about them or see pictures! I’ve been thinking about doing hearts and taping them onto cards for Valentine’s Day, since allergies are such a big issue for Niko’s special education class. Any other suggestions?

4 Comments on “Miss Murder’s Easy DIY: Cannibalizing Crayons”

  1. We used seashell molds to make these as goodie bag gifts for a Little Mermaid-themed birthday party. They were pretty big molds so we used up ALL the broken crayons in the house 🙂

  2. I know of people who have asked their children’s teachers to save broken crayons for them and others who have asked for broken crayons on Freecycle so that they could have extra crayons to make large numbers of these for parties and such.

    Having children running around can be a challenge. I hope that you find more wonderful projects to help keep them focused on something so that you can get things done while they are home for the summer.

    I hope that you are NOT getting the flu. We have had some kind of chest cold crud here for almost 3 weeks now. It has not been pretty. Thank goodness we don’t have children to run around after.

    Hugs,

    Ardee-ann

  3. omg, this is such an awesome idea! Am totally going to do this – we home school, so I’m always looking for new activities, and we have HEAPS of broken crayons 😉 Thank you!!!!!!!

  4. Rosa, seashell molds! I bet that was so cute!

    Ardee-Ann, that’s a brilliant idea! I bet their teachers have tons of crayons. Even if they bring them home, we make them, and send the kids back to school with the new ones. Fun!

    JC, you amaze me! I don’t think I could home school. You’ll have to share some of your (super easy) activities with me!

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