Thursday, December 15, 2011

A favorite handmade gift for kiddos-molded crayons

Ok, so I I'll admit I got my inspiration for this project about 2 years ago from Martha Stewart's website.



I made a few molded crayon gifts Aidan's 1st Christmas for some of our buddies who were a bit older than him.

This year I thought I would try them again, especially since reading on a Mommy blog about how Crayolas were best for melting. Last time I bought a few big boxes of RoseArt because they were cheaper, but they didn't melt all that well and I decided not to do this project again. 

Until I read the tip about Crayola.

Over the summer and fall I collected little 24 packs of Crayolas when I found them for like 44 cents. 

I also had bought a cookie/cupcake pan that has snowmen and mittens to use as my mold the first time around which makes cute Chistmas themed crayons.


Ok so I sat here early yesterday morning while the kids were asleep and started peeling crayons. And after about 10 crayons I was cursing and almost gave up.

Have you ever tried peeling like a million effing Crayolas? Their paper is glued on like crazy and peels off in tiny little shreds. I was soooo aggravated!

Then I had my "aha!" moment.

I ran to the kitchen drawer, pulled out the scalpel we keep for pumpkin carving and sliced the paper down the middle.

It popped right off! Yay now I could continue with my project!!

I broke them up, organized them into similar color groups, put them in a low temp oven (250-300*) for 15 mins, and voila!


I did learn the trick for getting them out of a metal pan is once they've cooled a bit put the tray in the freezer for a few minutes...the crayons pull away from the sides and then you can tip the tray over and they fall right out.

Once Aidan woke up I let him put all the crayon pieces into the molds so the color combos got a bit crazy and disorganized, but he had fun so who cares??
The first Batch


I hope his friends enjoy their little treat from us!

ps you don't want to use a pan or tin that you plan on using for food because there is lots of crayon left in the pan that you jut can't get out. My Christmas tin is exclusively for melted crayons.

1 comment:

  1. First of all - really? A scalpal for carving pumpkins? Such is life in the house of a surgeon, I guess. Secondly, the crayons look awesome! We got Aidan some big coloring books, but with this theme maybe you already bought a ton? I can always exchange...

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