My kiddo was home sick yesterday with a “little tiny fever,” as he says. It’s the kind of fever that is too much to send to school (due to my guilt, really) and almost too low to make him stay in the house. But, not to be one that takes chances, we stayed home all day.
And also not one to lose an opportunity to do a little crafty something with my dude, I looked to my “new” copy of Good Things for Kids, a crafty magazine put out by the Martha Stewart folks in early 2008, picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents a few months ago. I don’t think they make these mags anymore, which really is tragic.

From the Good Things for Kids magazine...my inspiration!
Supplies needed:
At least two dozen crayons; I raided his crayon box and culled out the broken, partially unwrapped ones for this project.
A muffin tin, preferably a shallow one, but all I had was the standard 12-muffin version.
A serrated knife that you might not care to use again
Several cups to hold the crayon chunks
Wax paper
Kitchen towels
Cutting board

Peeling the crayons
While he took his afternoon nap I peeled the paper from the crayons and chopped them up into pea sized pieces. Like in the picture, I found it helpful to use a knife to scrape a strip of paper off the crayon first, making it easier peel the paper off in one big chunk.

Chopping the crayons
I layered a kitchen towel under some wax paper on top of my cutting board so it wouldn’t become embedded with crayon chips. Also, the wax paper made a neat funnel for the chips when I poured them into cups.

All chunked up.
Be sure the pieces are about the size of a pea or smaller.

All the yummy colors, ripe for melting!
I sorted the chips by color families into styrofoam and little yogurt cups. I liked the yogurt cups better, since they were smaller and easier for the kiddo to handle. Just FYI, the peeling/chopping process took me about an hour.

Mixing it up in the muffin tins
Right about the time I was done, the kiddo woke up and was SO EXCITED to learn that he would be making crayons! He got right to mixing the colors together in the tins. Now, as I said before, you would get the best results with a medium sized, more shallow tin; the crayons will be smaller, easier to handle and thicker. This big tin was all I had. You do not need to spray any non-stick spray in the tins…they will just pop out when they are cool.

Almost ready for the oven.
Put your tin in the oven, preheated to 150 degrees, for 15-20 minutes. Another slight hiccup in my plans was my oven’s lowest setting of 200 degrees. I set my timer to 12 minutes, and this was the result:

Pretty colors...
They set out for 20-30 minutes, hardening up fairly quickly. They just popped right out with a twist.

The finished product.

Organizing, just like his momma.

Testing them out.
Overall this was a great, fast, fun and super easy project. Wouldn’t these make great stocking stuffers or class mate treats? And a great way to recycle those crayons you were going to toss, huh? Let me know if you try them out; I’d love to hear about your success! Talk to you all later-
Leigh