Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Tell-All Tuesday: I Love DIY Projects-Chunky Crayon Tutorial

I would like to think of myself as a creative person. I have always enjoyed anything that I am able to create with my own two hands. When it comes to gift giving, I think that making your own things not only makes a gift a little more meaningful, but the process can also be fun, and usually makes for a little less money spent which is always a good thing in my book. Ellie also enjoys being artistic, like many other toddlers, but still has a little bit of a hard time with her fine motor skills when it comes to coloring. I had been trying to find some large, chunky crayons to put in her stocking this year when I came across the idea to just make some of our own. I decided they could be a cute little gift that Ellie and I could create together to give to her little buddies for Christmas. While it really ended up being a project more suitable for just me, I think that children that are a little bit older might be able to help out more, and it was still fun to make them myself.

Chunky Crayon Tutorial

What you will need:
  • non-toxic high quality crayons (such as crayola)
  • razor blade (optional)
  • oven
  • oven safe containers that you do not mind getting ruined with wax (I used glass jars)
  • baking sheet and foil
  • candy molds (I chose large plastic snowflake molds since they were for Christmas gifts)
Process: 
 
I started out by raiding the old crayon stash at my mom's house, where I found a tin full of old crayola crayons. Score! Even if I had purchased a large box of crayons for the project, it would not have been too expensive.
Next I sorted the crayons into color groups. If you just mix them randomly, you will probably get a muddy brown color. If that is what you are going for though then mix away :)

Peeling all of the paper off of the crayons was the next step. When I was about halfway through them I decided to use a razor blade to cut the paper and then peel it off in one big piece. This made for a much quicker peeling process, but obviously wouldn't be the best option if you are having your little one(s) participating.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. You will need something to put the crayons in to melt them into liquid. I found that glass jars worked really well for this, and I was lucky that my dad happened to have quite a large collection of these in his garage. I would also recommend lining a baking sheet or pan with foil to put the jars on/in, as the crayon wax can get a little messy. The next step is to break the crayons up into pieces and place them in the jars, which can be put on the foil lined pan and into the oven.
Melting the crayons down can take a little bit of time and patience. I ended up turning the oven temperature higher because patience is not really my thing, but I (and my unwilling victim Kevin, Ellie was luckily in bed at this point) sure did pay the price in stinky crayon fumes. I would also recommend making sure you are in a well ventilated area and maybe cracking a window or two. I think that if you are able to remain patient and keep the oven temperature low, you can probably avoid much of the waxy crayon stench.
Once the crayons were completely melted down, I carefully poured the wax into the molds. This is also a step that should be left to the adults, the wax will be VERY hot. You can place the filled molds in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. Once they are completely cooled, the crayons should easily pop out of your molds, and you will have brand new, chunky toddler-friendly crayons in the shape of your choice! I think they turned out pretty darn cute :)




I decided to put the crayons in cute little Holiday tins that they can be stored in, and wrap them up with some string and these adorable little gift tags that I found on Pinterest. They are an awesome free PDF printable that you can fill in yourself and print at home. Oh, and did I mention they were FREE?? You can find them here: gift tag printable
Just scroll down and click on the "download woodland gift tags & labels" button to get the PDF.






I am so proud of how they turned out! I hope that everyone has an amazing, fun and safe Holiday spent with loved ones. Merry Christmas Eve and GO BEAVERS! I can't wait for Ellie to see what Santa brings her tonight!








2 comments:

  1. Excuse me, your sister also paid the price during your trial run

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    1. Hey you can comment! Also, getting annoyed by my peeling noises is not nearly as much suffering as the stinky wax smell that permeated our house. Sorry.

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