Recycled Crayon Art

My kitchen's dry erase board houses a perpetual list of craft supplies.  Wooden pictures frames, special glues, hanging wire, certain colors of spray paint all linger on the list, waiting to be purchased to craft away an afternoon.

Sometimes, though, a play date arises (or a Friday morning), and my eyes flit around the house for an easy craft that uses supplies I have readily available.  Repurposing old crayons seemed like a great way to stretch my craft dollars.

Recently, I began eye-balling the crayon bag-a large plastic bag housing the millions of crayons ousted from their proper homes, boxes bent or torn beyond proper use.  Lurking within the crayon bag are the misfits of coloring time, the remnants of crayons past their prime, broken, labels peeled, and frowned upon by my occasionally particular daughter.

You can recycle these crayons and make them the star of the show with a little help from waxed paper and an iron.

an iron

wax paper sheets (a roll works fine)

the crayon bag

separate misfit crayons

remove paper

divide into colors or color families

(we used plastic bags, but piles would work just as well)

let almost-four year old bash crayons into pieces

(I used my scrapbooking cutting mat to protect the table)

divide crayon pieces into small bowls (or piles)

contemplate adding glitter

decide against glitter

lay down a dish towel, then wax paper

make a pile of crayon pieces

cover with another sheet of wax paper

iron* (very low heat) until you see this:

*I did this step, "supervised" by the kids

let cool (it only takes a few minutes)

peel from wax paper

thread with ribbon

(I used a wooded skewer to make the holes)

hang from dining room light*

*optional in the case of homes not decorated with preschooler artwork

Abbey and her friend loved this craft.  Dylan and the friend's little sister kept trying to eat the crayon pieces.  Bowls of pretzels were provided as substitutes for waxy snacks, and they were a great distraction during the ironing part of the project.

I might experiment with using cookie cutters next time, pressing into the cooling wax to make different shapes.  Using similar, or lighter, colors seems to work best.

We'll definitely be doing this again, because crayon scraps are always popping up around our house!