I prefer to color with markers or gel pens myself, but I’ve been known to dig out a box of crayons from time to time. Of course, the main problem with crayons is that they’re prone to breakage. But, there’s an easy way to recycle these tiny crayon bits into colorful new drawing tools. All you need to do is melt the crayon wax in the mold of your choice.
I’ve found that this project works best with silicone baking molds. These molds can be found in pretty much any shape you can imagine. You can use ice cube molds to make small crayons or muffin molds to make chunky crayons. The only thing to keep in mind is that you need to use molds that are used exclusively for crafting. Once you’ve melted wax in your molds, you don’t want to use them to make muffins or other edible goodies. After holiday clearance sales are a great place to find cheap molds for crafting, but you can also find a variety of cheap silicone ice cube molds at local dollar stores.
To begin making your rainbow crayons, you’ll need peel off all of the wrappers on your broken crayon bits. This can be time consuming, so it’s a good chore to do while you’re watching TV. You can mix and match different brands of crayons, but I would suggest avoiding including any wax from the Crayola Twistables in your batch. In past projects, I’ve had difficulty getting the Twistable wax to melt properly.
Next, you need to add the crayon bits into your mold. You can either make solid color crayons or make swirled crayons. If you’re making swirl crayons, try to pick colors that go together. For example, a red, yellow, and orange crayon is going to look prettier than one that is red, brown, blue, green, gray, and purple.
Cook your crayons in 250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. When the crayons are done, you’ll have a pool of hot melted wax.
Stick your crayons in the freezer for about 30 minutes to cool them. When the wax is completely dry, you can remove them from the molds.
If you package your crayons in cellophane gift bags tied with ribbon, they make cute yet inexpensive gifts for your child’s friends. Or, you can simply display them in your coloring space as pretty decorations!