Young children often love to color, but since they are still developing
their hand-eye coordination they sometimes end up pressing down too hard on
their crayons, accidentally breaking them. Most parents hate to throw the
broken pieces away, and instead end up tossing them into a bucket so the kids
can still use them. However, after a while it may seem like your
collection of broken crayons is a little bit too big. When that’s the
case, check out these crafts you can do with them.
•
Marbled crayon shapes- Purchase a
silicon ice cube tray at the dollar store or other discount center. These
silicon trays come in a range of shapes, so allow the kids to pick their
favorite one. Once the silicon trays are used for this project you should
not use them for ice cubes again. Have the kids tear off the paper from
all of the broken crayons. The crayons should be broken into 1 inch
pieces. Place the silicon ice cube tray onto a foil lined cookie sheet.
Place the broken bits of crayons into the ice cube tray. Try not to mix
more than 3 colors together in each cube space or the result could end up being
a muddy brown mess. When the tray is full put it into the oven at 300
degrees F for 10 minutes. If the crayons are not completely melted after
10 minutes, put them back in and check on them every couple of minutes until
they’ve melted entirely. Once melted, remove the sheet from the oven and
allow the crayons to cool and harden completely before removing from the ice
cube tray.
•
Fall leaves or flowers- Create crayon
shavings using a basic pencil sharpener. Keep the shavings in cupcake
papers to avoid mixing up the colors and creating a mess. You will need a
lot of shavings for this project. Tear off a sheet of waxed paper about
36 inches long. Fold it in half. Open it back up and have the kids
put piles of crayon shavings all over the waxed paper. Keeping the piles
the same color will allow them to show through in the final project and not mix
together. Fold the waxed paper back over the shavings. Top the
waxed paper with foil and then iron with a warm iron. Keep checking until
the crayons are completely melted. Allow the waxed paper to cook for a
few minutes and then let the kids cut out leaves and flower shapes to use as
window art.
•
Dressed up pillar candles- Unwrap all of
the broken crayons and put them into a clean, tall, thin metal can – eggnog
cans work well for this. Bring a pot full of water to a boil. Once
boiling, remove the pot from the heat and add the can full of crayons to the
water to melt them. Be patient and do not stir as the colors will blend
and turn to a muddy color. In the meantime, lay out some newspaper.
Next, hold onto the wick of a white pillar candle and dip it into the melted
crayons. When you remove it the pillar will be very colorful. Hold
the pillar over the can to allow any excess to drip off, then set it aside on
the newspaper until the wax sets while you dip other candles.
•
Sandy pics- Pick up some sheets of sand paper at the dollar store
or use some you have around the house. Have the kids color pictures on
the sandpaper using the broken crayons and tell them to push hard. Place
the finished sandpaper artwork onto foil-lined cookie sheets and place them in
the oven at 225 degrees F, allowing the wax to melt into the crevices of the
sand paper. It should only take about 5 minutes so keep an eye on it.
•
Melted crayon artwork- You will need
a blank canvas of any size, some broken crayons still in their papers, some hot
glue and an embossing gun. Hot glue good-sized crayon pieces still in
their paper to the canvas. To get the longest area to melt it’s best to
glue them to the top quarter of the canvas. Once the crayons are hot
glued on you can turn on an embossing gun and start melting the crayons.
Stand the canvas up and lean it slightly back so that the melted wax stays on
the canvas. As you work you will figure out how best to hold the gun and
how to manipulate the melting wax. The embossing gun doesn’t get hot
enough to melt the hot glue so the crayons do not fall off, they just melt and
the colors run down the canvas. Bright colors work best for this, but any
colors you like will work.
The next time your child breaks a crayon, don’t sweat it. Just
toss it in the bucket until you have enough crayons to make a crayon craft.
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