If your kids are anything like mine when it comes to coloring, they hold the crayon wrong and press too hard and then that beautiful 48 pack of brand new crayons has turned into a 96 pack of broken bits. It seems like such a waste to toss out the broken ones, after all they still color, so they go into our crayon bucket with the hundreds of other pieces of crayons that we have collected over the years.

Well, after a trip to the craft store, mama came home with a candy mold and an idea and that’s how this new life tutorial came to be. 

Materials:

crayon bits (I guess you could use new ones if you wanted)
an old 1qt sauce pan that you don’t mind never using for food again
a plastic candy mold or 2 or 3 (it could be metal too I guess but the plastic makes removal pretty easy) 

1) peel all the crayons. This can be a really tedious task if not done correctly. I found that slicing through the wrap with a paring knife and then having the kids peel made for quick work of an otherwise slow process.
 

2) sort crayons. We sorted by the rainbow. You can sort any way you choose.
 

3) melt down the crayons. I made a make shift double boiler. Also, instead of just letting the crayons sit till they were melting, I pretty much continually swirled them around in the pan so they melted fast and melted at the coolest temperature they would melt.
**note: please remember that crayons are wax and wax is flamable. Don’t let them melt unsupervised. Don’t let them stay on the burner longer than they need to. Make sure you have a pot lid close at hand to smother any fire that may flare up. Water will not put out a wax fire.**
 

4) pour the melted wax into the mold. Keep a couple paper towels handy for this step. After you pour, wipe the edge of the pot with a paper towel to clean off the excess wax. 

5) continue melting and molding untill you run out of crayons or you run out of mold, whichever comes first. 

6) let the wax cool completely before removing from the mold. I filled a baking sheet with a bit of cold water and then carefully placed the mold in it to help speed up the cooling process.
 

7) remove the crayons from the mold and enjoy your new creations.
 

Feel free to get as creative as you want with these. Because you make them, they don’t have to be boring old single color crayons. Just make sure that the first layer is cool enough that it can support having another layer poured on it without caving in.