Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Great idea!


Crafting with Kids: How to Make Crayons

03/18/2013
This weekend, there was some kid friendly crafting in the Putnam household – we decided to make our own crayons.
A few weeks ago my daughter, Peanut, came home from school with a homemade crayon given to her from a friend.  She has been asking me since then if we could try it, and so on Saturday, that was our main goal – make crayons.  Lots of crayons.
We started with our crayon bin digging through the broken and junkier ones.
Recycling-Crayons
Step 1: Peel the Wrappers
We began peeling off the wrappers which we did find to be a bit tedious.  But then we figured out if I used a knife and cutting board and cut a slit down the side, then she was able to easily remove the labels.  Be super careful to not hurt yourself please!
How-to-for-Making-Crayons
We kept going until we had a nice big pile of wrapper-free crayons.
Step 2: Sort by Color
I had her direct as much of the creative side as possible – but my only suggestion was to minimize the color mix so they didn’t all just become mud.  She decided to start by grouping them by color, like a rainbow.
Rainbow-of-Crayons
Step 3: Bake
  I picked up a Wilton silicon baking mould at Michael’s in star shapes to use for this project.  We filled each one about a third. There were a few we filled a little higher and they worked just fine, they were just a little bit thicker.
We placed it on a cookie sheet to make it easier to take in and out.  Each batch took about 20 minutes to bake at 275 degrees.  Some of the crayon pieces were holding on solid longer than others.  When this happened, I used a tooth pick to swirl it and break them apart.
Step 4: Remove from Oven and Let Cool
  Once they were completely liquid, we took them out and swirled them a little bit with a toothpick to mix the colors.  We left them in the tray on a cooling rack until they started to solidify.  Once they were no longer liquid, we placed them in the freezer until they were completely solid and cooled.  Each of these steps took about 10 minutes.
Step 5: Remove Crayons from the Mould
Because the mould is silicone, I was able to stretch the sides of each star away from the crayon, working my way around the star.  Once it was completely loose, I was able to easily remove it.  I expected some breakage – but we actually ended up making 30 crayons and none of them broke.
Now, my girl is 10 and would have done this all day long.  With smaller children, one batch might be just enough because the whole cycle can take quite awhile.
Once we put the first batch in, we used some small Pyrex dishes to start organizing the next batches.   This also helped to get everything organized so that we could start cleaning up.
Crayon-Making-Tutorial
Then, we started some other projects and kept moving each batch through the steps.
When a batch finished, we just poured the dishes into the stars and started again.

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