Yesterday I sat with two of my five grandchildren, while my daughter ran some errands. The first thing the little ones do is to dig through my purse and tote bag, while they ask, "What do you have for us, Grandma? What are we going to do today?" If I don't bring a simple, fun craft to make, they want to count out my change, take out every picture from my wallet, pop out every square of gum from the foil packet, squirt my hand sanitizer on every visible part of their bodies (plus the dog), make happy faces on every page of my miniature address book, try on lipstick, and generally run amok. Keira is almost five, and Lukie is three. My daughter lovingly calls them 'Thing One' and 'Thing Two.' I find it in my best interest to come prepared to entertain. You can never go wrong with an easy art or craft project. Children love to make something with their own hands.
I've stumbled upon many websites with great ideas for recycling coloring crayons. I love this fun way to use up all those broken pieces of crayons. The kids were very excited to sit at the table and peel the paper off a can of old crayons. I love Lukie's face as he used all his might to break the crayons and lay them into the tree molds.
I use a silicone baking pan to make recycled crayons. If you don't have one yet ~ I'll tell you ~ they're the slickest invention. They can be baked in your oven up to 500*. They're flexible, dishwasher safe, and you don't need to grease them. I set my silicone mold on a cookie sheet to keep it stable during baking. The cookie pan was confusing Lukie a little bit. He was sure we could eat the crayons when they were finished. I kept telling him, "Nope! They will always be crayons for coloring when we're done, even though we're making them in a cookie pan." I explained the process that we would be using to the kids.
We peeled all our crayons, and made sure there were no paper scraps on them. We broke the crayons into small pieces, and laid them in the Christmas tree molds. I wanted to make some crayons with different shades of one color, but the kids were too excited. We ended up with dazzling rainbows.
I preheated the oven to 350* for this project. When our tree molds were filled, I put the pan in the oven for about ten minutes. You will want to check your molds after five minutes. It won't take long to melt your crayons. When they're melted, take them out of the oven and let them cool.
We wanted to hurry up the process, so that we could finish before Lukie's nap. I set the hot cookie sheet on the deck, in the cold snow. I covered it up with a baking sheet, as it was snowing heavily outside. Within 15 minutes, they were solid, and popped out of the tree molds easily.
Lukie didn't make it until the end. He fell asleep as we were finishing, so I only had a chance to snap Keira's picture with the finished product. She has a birthday coming up in March, and she wanted to know if we could make more crayons for her friends. I think we will experiment with sprinkling some 'fairy glitter' on her birthday crayons, before baking.
Silicone molds can be expensive, but you know how much I love them already! I picked up this one for 75% off, after Christmas, at our Michael's Craft Store. I'll be looking for a heart shaped pan on sale after Valentine's Day. Maybe the kids and I can make heart shaped crayons for St. Patrick's Day. You know the old saying ~ A day late, a dollar short, a holiday behind ... yep. That would be me. It's a fun project, no matter what shaped pan you use. The Christmas tree molds are always in fashion around here. We live and love in the great Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and are surrounded by forests. It was another cold, snowy, cozy day in the UP, cooking crayons, watching the snow fall, and appreciating each other.
Yours Truly Tia
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