chicbusymom: Kid Activity: Crayon Surgery

Article update here folks: The original article was a DIY make your own crayon craft but now we the following new gadget fro Crayola which sounds like a lot of fun. Check it out:

M& Mold Factory

Hola Hot Chicks!

Here is a cool activity you can do with your kids on an upcoming snow day or weekend. It comes from my super crafty mom friend Kai.

Kai and her kids do some really creative stuff (you should have seen her Yo Gabba Gabba Halloween pumpkins). She is like a modern day Martha Stewart only with four kids and no jail time:-)

Here she is with her beautiful girls:

Yo Gabba Gabba Pumpkins!

Anyway, she shared this one with me and I thought I 'color' it forward. Its super easy and is sure to get all those old broken crayons off the floor (or is that just my house?)

Kai, take it away...

Here is a super easy activity for you to do with your children. I found this idea while venting and reading other reviews from the non-working Crayola Crayon Maker Santa brought for Christmas. Another mom mentioned making crayons in muffin tins using old broken up crayons and that is exactly what we did!

They came out nicer, took less time and are more colorful than the Crayola crayon maker could make.

WHAT YOU NEED:
• Old crayons that have the paper peeled off of them and are broken (you can break and peel any type of crayons you have laying around)
• Muffin tin-mini or regular (we used a mini muffin tin) You can also use the silicone kind and then you will not need muffin liners
• Muffin liners if you are not using a silicone pan
• Your oven

WHAT YOU DO:
• Set your oven to 400 degrees
• If using metal tins, put liner paper in tins
• Peel and break crayons you wish to use
• Fill the muffin tin with the color combinations you wish to make

TIP:
You can make any color combination you wish, but I found that working within the same color families or mixing dark with light or white crayons works best. For example, you can make a red & white “candy cane”crayon, or you can mix dark blues with whites or sky blues.

We made our crayons into themes like “grasses,” “sky crayon,” “metallic crayon” (mix of gold, cooper and silver). These are just examples, get creative and really experiment with the colors you have. Just know that if you mix too many dark colors you may get what looks like brown.

Put muffin tin in the oven and watch the show!

Take the muffin tin out promptly as soon as the crayons have completely melted (2-3 minutes) DO NOT leave in the oven too long or the oven will smoke and your house will smell like burnt wax!

The crayons above are almost done! See there are still some chunks visible.

Next, set the muffins to cool on the counter or for faster results the freezer.

These are going in the freezer to harden faster. After they set, remove the muffins from the freezer and peel off liner paper.

See below, these are completely cooled and ready!