Pinterest has this ability to convince us that we just might start carrying out these intricate and extravagant and amazing activities with our kiddos...but listen, don't pin ideas that you'll never do...pin the gems that are easy to implement...things you can do with stuff you already have on hand.
For example, check out how we made our own crayons!
I had spotted this idea on
Pinterest some time ago, so over the course of several months, I collected our old, broken, junky crayons. (Yes, those of you who know about my fear of clutter are probably shocked I held on to them!)
When I felt I had gathered enough crayons (a sandwich size Ziploc bag full), I decided it was time to do this project. I rounded up a cookie sheet, a couple of silicone molds, and some cooking spray.
Then I got my crew together and enlisted their help! Their job was to peel all of the paper off of the crayons. I had a feeling they would get bored with this and I would be left to do the job myself, but they actually had a great time with this step.
We had quite the mess on our hands, but my kiddos were excited to see what we were going to do next.
Daddy helped us break the crayons into to smaller piece - approximately 1 inch pieces and smaller.
Then we sprayed our molds with cooking spray (I've been told you definitely don't want to forget this step!) and started filling the molds with crayons...
...making sure to include a fun variety of colors in each section.
Then we placed the molds on the cookie sheet and popped them in the oven.
We let them bake at 300 degrees for approximately 20 minutes. This was much longer than some of the pins I had found recommended. I think it depends on your molds...and your crayons...and your oven...etc.
When it looks as if the crayons were mostly melted (soupy in appearance), we pulled the tray out of the oven and allowed them to cool on the counter (away from little hands!).
We left them there until they had hardened.
You could also place your molds in the fridge once they have cooled a bit.
Once they had hardened, we popped our new crayons out of the molds...
...and they were gorgeous!
We couldn't help but start coloring with them right away!
Note: Make sure your silicone molds are oven safe. It seemed that one of our was, but one of ours technically wasn't - so just a heads up on that. Also know that your molds may be permanently stained...but we figure we will just use them to make more crayons in the future.
