Recycle Crayons!

Here's a fun project we did today. We made our own race car crayons!

What you need:

Crayola Crayons (The art teacher says don't skimp on cheap crayons)

Candy Mold (We used LorAnn's Sweet Shoppe mold because it said tempered for high heat, available at HobbyLobby)

Plastic Knife

Washable Cutting surface

Cookie Sheet lined with foil

Step 1: Peel Paper off crayons. Use a plastic knife to score the crayon into 5 or 6 segments. Break crayon into small chunks. You used about 4 crayons for the car mold.

Step 2: Place crayons randomly in the mold. Let crayons create a little raised moutain so that when crayons melt it will fill up the space of the mold. Don't worry about the stick portion that is used in candy making. If the crayons melt into that space, you can easily pop it off your crayon when it's done.

Step 3: Put mold onto cookie sheet lined with foil (unless you are okay with picking off melted crayon.) Place cookie sheet & mold into 250 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Here's what it looks like halfway through the cooking process!

Here's when it's completely melted.

Avoid mixing in the colors, as it's nice to have the rainbow effect. Let mold sit for a few minutes to begin to harden up. Then move mold to the freezer for 15 minutes. Once chilled, the new crayons should easily pop out of the mold. The extra melted crayon should come off the mold easily as well.

Notes:

* Only use a mold tested for high heat or silicone mold. Other molds, especially of the clear variety will not work in the oven. They will melt. Check the label before you buy. LorAnn's molds are around $2.99, and Wilton Silicone molds are around $9.99 but, probably last longer. All molds are re-usable.

* Other brands of crayons may not work as well. You can stock up on Crayola crayons cheap in July & August at Walmart. I got a motherload of them for 8 cents a box last year! You can always check with your child's teacher at the end of the year, teachers might be throwing out all the broken ones soon!

* You can do all the molds at once. I was testing this so I only did one the first time. I also cut my mold in half, which you should not do, unless you like propping them up in the oven. Again, I was testing this and didn't want to loose all the car molds if my first attempt ended in a melted plastic puddle in my oven.