Re-making crayons

I have a toddler who *loves* to draw/color. He has a whole bin of crayons that have come from different places and people, I threw them all together rather than keeping separate crayon boxes, etc. I also keep him coloring books and stencils in the bin, too. It works great.

Of course with little hands (and, I should admit, my hands) doing so much drawing, crayons break. Even the thicker ones that are meant for toddlers. Noah will still use the little pieces to color with but they were driving me crazy.

Today I decided to try melting them down and re-making crayons. I pulled out a foil muffin tins and a silicone icecube tray, and that was really all I needed to do this.

Step 1 - Peel off the paper and put crayon pieces in the tins, in a cupcake pan. I preheat the oven to around 400 degrees (C) and then put these in the oven just like this. I checked on them every few minutes and I stirred them around with a tooth pick a few times. After about 8-9 minutes, they were full melted so I pulled them out.

Before going in the oven

After I took them out of the oven

Step 2 - Let cool, but only a few minutes, until you can pick the muffin tins up. If you let them cool too long they will start to set. Then pour into mold (any shape or size works!)

I only made enough to do these four, because I wanted to see how it turned out before a ton of them. 

Step 3 - Put the mold into the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or until completely set. Took about 15 minutes for me. 

Step 4 - Pop the new crayons out of the mold!

They have a bit of "frost" on them in this picture, but as soon as they warmed up a bit and Noah started using them, it went away.

I was a bit unsure of how these would actual work, but they draw really well! I ended up with a redish/pink and a brown, but that's cause I just put random colors together in the muffin tins to melt. 

Here is the crayons and how they actually worked on paper.

And finally, Noah actually coloring with them. He loves how easy he can grip them and scribble, too!