Being a former teacher I have crayons coming out my ears. All the ones that got lost and no one claimed became mine. Jump forward and I could also make the statement being a mother to 4 I have crayons coming out my ears! So, what to do with all the bits and pieces of crayons that have accumulated over the years. Then I came across a recycle idea. Make new crayons. With Valentine's on the horizon I thought it would be a lot of fun for the kids to make these to put with their valentines for the kids in their classes.
The first step is to find a mold. I found a heart shaped one since it is for Valentine's Day. If your mold can go in the oven even better - if not there is another way as long as it can stand up to hot liquids.
Start by removing the wrappers from the crayons and breaking them into smallish pieces. I found the easiest way to remove the wrappers is for an adult to score it with an exacto knife and then let the kids remove the wrapper. Some of my crayons were so old that the wrapper was stuck to the wax. The only advice I have - the involved adult can use the exacto knife to carefully scrape it off, the children can use fingernails to do the same, or just throw it out or back into your stash of crayons - there is no easy answer.
Way 1: put the pieces by color into cupcake tin liners and then melt them in the oven. Once melted poor the liquified crayons into molds and allow to harden. Be careful - the wax is hot and know that I am too lazy to do it this way. So I have not tried the whole pooring thing. I did melt some in the liners and then let them harden to make liner shaped crayons for the little ones. 
Way 2: Find a mold that is big enough and can go in the oven. Put your crayon pieces directly into the mold and melt in oven. Once melted, remove from oven and allow to cool. Remove from molds. I used a silicone mold which made removal easy. I have read that they kind of pop away from the sides of other molds as they cool, but since I have not tried other molds I can't vouch for that.
One more look at the finished product! 
You can either make single colored crayons by using pieces of a similar color or you can make multicolored by mixing pieces. The choice is yours.
I am hoping that I can clean the excess wax out of the molds to use them for cooking later. I am thinking I can fill them with water and put them in the oven for the remnants to melt and then poor the water out and immediately clean with soap and water. I will let you know in a future post if I am able to get them clean - but that may be a week or two away since my kids are still having fun making crayons.
You can either make single colored crayons by using pieces of a similar color or you can make multicolored by mixing pieces. The choice is yours. I am hoping that I can clean the excess wax out of the molds to use them for cooking later. I am thinking I can fill them with water and put them in the oven for the remnants to melt and then poor the water out and immediately clean with soap and water. I will let you know in a future post if I am able to get them clean - but that may be a week or two away since my kids are still having fun making crayons.
We love making new crayons out of our old ones. I heat them in a soup can in a pot of boiling water and then pour them into plastic sucker or chocolate molds. Sometimes we add glitter to turn them into sparkle crayons. It is a lot of fun!
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