Homemade Chunky Crayons - Recycling!

My Aunt found a big bag of crayons at a second hand store, so I went to work at making the chunky toddler crayons I have heard about.

1. Peel off all paper from crayons (kids might enjoy this task!)

2. Cut into small chunks

3. Prepare Pan.

Muffin Tin: use an old one because it will get wax on it and surprisingly it is very hard to remove it all afterwards. Or purchase one from second hand store.

On my first batch, I put pieces of tin foil in each cup (I have heard you can buy muffin cup liners made of foil but haven't seen them). 7 out of 9 cups had wax leak underneath the foil and make a mess. Plus the crayons turned out very wrinkly due to the creases in the foil. * Not recommended unless you use the aluminum liners but I didn't try that.

Second batch, I sacrificed my muffin tin since it already had wax on it from the first batch. I sprayed it liberally with cooking spray. * This worked the best.

4. After preparing pan, pile your crayons chunks. I liked to stick to 2 - 4 colours per cup and grouped each colour together.

5. Turn oven to 250F (no need to preheat, this isn't a cake we're making!) and put muffin tin in. It took about 10 mins. Even if not all the chunks were melted, I turned the oven off and left it inside for awhile.

6. Remove from oven and let cool on counter. When they started to solidify, I stuck them in the freezer. An hour later they popped out so easily.

Option 2: Film Canisters - Place film canisters in a baking pan lined with a piece of tin foil to catch drips. Using a tin can, melt your crayons in the can by placing it in a saucepan with an inch or two of water on the stove. Stir the chunks (wooden skewer worked great) until melted. Pour carefully into film canisters. Some of them I layered a few different colours for a cute effect.

*Unless you want to use a dozen different cans, start with your lightest colour and then reuse for the next darker colour. This way the leftover wax in the can won't distort your colours too much.

Finished product from Film Canisters

Finished product from aluminum foil lined muffin tin.

Finished product from greased muffin tin & my Favourites!

These crayons will be used in the loot bags for my daughter's birthday party and the less pretty crayons will be used at home & our cabin.

I read somewhere that the washable crayons don't work for this. Whatever makes the washable will rise to the top and the kids won't be able to colour with them. Since my crayons were a mixed assortment of unknown brands, I made sure to use some of each type in a muffin cup.

I really enjoyed the project and couldn't stop once I started creating my little masterpieces!