Do your kids peel the labels off crayons and break them like it’s their job? We’re left with tons of broken crayons and less than inspired artists. Here’s a fun tutorial to re-use those broken bits and re-inspire you and your kids!

What you’ll need:

• broken wax crayons (all labels removed)
• silicon mold/silicon ice tray (alphabet or fun shapes; must be oven-safe)
• cookie sheet or jelly roll pan

Step 1.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Step 2.

Place broken crayons in shape/letter slots in silicon mold. You can mix and match colors as the wax will settle to varying degrees – while some colors will melt and mix into a new color entirely, other colors will hold their own and become multi-colored crayons. I’m guessing this has something to do with either the chemical makeup of the color dye and/or using different brands of crayons with varying wax bases. Oh, and be careful not to overload each space (to avoid overflow once the wax melts).

Step 3.

Place silicon molds on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes (or until all wax chunks have melted).

Step 4.

Remove pan/molds from oven, and let the wax cool for at least one hour.

Step 5.

Check to be sure pans and wax have cooled before popping out each shape/letter. (If you have any wax residue left on your mold, run it under cold water and you’ll be able to scrape off the wax bits with your fingernail or a dull knife.)

Step 6.

Color to your heart’s content! You can see above how the colors mixed as they melted…and below how cool they color!

Special notes:

• I found my alphabet mold on Amazon.
• The letter-shaped crayons are great for coloring at restaurants…they won’t roll off the table!
• The letter-shaped crayons are a great tool to reinforce letters, words and the alphabet with toddlers/pre-schoolers.
• This is a fun activity to do with your kids. My daughter, Gemma, helped load the crayons into the pans and got a kick out of watching through the oven window as the wax melted down into the letter slots.
• These make great gifts! Gemma gave each of her neighborhood friends their own “name in crayons” as a Christmas gift one year.
• You can use this project to open a dialogue with young kids about ways to “reduce, reuse and recycle” in your home and community.