CRAFT TUTORIAL: Making New Crayons from Old, Broken Crayons!

Posted by Crystal

Thank you to the 40 or so people who attended craftLAB on December 5, 2010 at The Lunch Studio!  We all had a great time upcycling old, broken crayons into new crayons in a variety of holiday shapes.

A lot of families wanted to make more crayons at home, so we are posting a craft tutorial to remind everyone of the steps.  Enjoy!

Making Crayons

Materials/Tools:
1) Old, Broken Crayons
2) Microwave Safe Plastic Containers
3) Microwave
4) Plastic Spoons
5) Candy Molds
6) Small Trays
7) Freezer

Step 1: Sort out all of the non-Crayola crayons into a separate container and set them aside.  We recommend that you only use Crayola crayons because they melt much better.  Make sure you have a lot of old, broken crayons!

Step 2: Sort your Crayola crayons by color and peel off all of the labels.  Brake the crayons into pieces about an inch long and put them in microwave safe plastic containers with lids.  Lunch meat containers are perfect and cheap.  Also, save the label peelings for a future craft project!

Step 3: When sorting and peeling the labels off your Crayola crayons, be sure to group like colors together.  It's fine if there are a variety of shades of the same color mixed together such as light green and dark green.  They will all melt together nicely into a medium/dark green.  If you specifically want a light color crayon, only melt light colors together.

Step 4: Microwave one color container with crayons about an inch deep for 5 minutes.  Use a plastic spoon to stir the melted crayons.  If necessary, microwave for another few minutes until most of the crayons are melted.  Use the spoon to hold back any unmelted crayons and pour the liquid crayon wax into a candy mold that is sitting on a small tray for stability. 

CAUTION: The liquid crayon wax is very hot, so an adult should do the pouring!

Step 5: Put the tray with the candy mold in the freezer for about 15 minutes.  Take the mold out the the freezer and the crayons should easily pop right out.  Now, you have brand new crayons! 

You can leave all of the melted and peeled crayons in the microwave safe containers.  Toss the color-coordinated spoon into the container and pop on the lid for easy storage until you want to make more crayons!

NOTE: Melted crayon wax can stain, so be sure to protect your table and clothes.

If you have old, broken crayons that you would like to donate to Flint Handmade for a future crayon-making workshop, just bring them to any Flint Handmade event or drop them off at The Lunch Studio!