Make old, broken crayons fun again!!

So, how many of you out there have a crayon box full of broken crayons? Let's see those hands! Then you have to go out and get all new ones. Well.......don't throw those away. You can turn them into something cute that kiddos will be dying to color with. CRAYON FLOWERS!!!! (or hearts, or stars, or whatever you want). There are 2 ways to make these. The first way is to just put all your broken crayons into the mold and put them in the oven till they melt. I will be showing the second way since I didn't know if my molds were oven safe and didn't want to gamble whether I would end up with a big melted mess in my oven :)

This is also something the kids can even help with (at least a little). Here's what you need:

Supplies
1. Silicone ice cube trays (I got mine at the Dollar Tree for $1 buck each)
2. Glass measuring cup
3. Small or medium pot
4. Broken crayons (of course!)

Step 1
Make a double boiler by putting water in your pot and the putting your glass measuring cup inside (with the handle hanging over the side). Bring water to a boil while doing the next step.

Step 2
Divide the crayons into the groups you wants to melt together. I did: black, brown, pink (mixed reds, pinks and whites together), purple (mixed blues, purples, and a few whites), yellow, orange, & green. Since I have 2 girls, and they tend to use pinks and purples ALOT......so I wanted to make more pinks & purples.


Step 3
Melt down your colors in whatever order you want to pour them into the molds. Then, once melted and using a potholder to pick up the measuring cup, pour them in the molds. This is the fun part for the kids to help with! You can layer the colors, swirl them, or just make solids. Whatever their hearts desire. Since my kids are little, I couldn't let them pour, but they got to tell me how they wanted ME to do it.

Step 4
Once cooled, let the kids pop them out of the molds.....and let them have fun!

Tips
If your kiddos are little, like mine, maybe let them help with the parts that don't involve the stove too much like maybe some stirring while the crayons melt. My girls had fun sorting and dictating how they wanted their crayons to look. They also loved popping them out and seeing the magical end results!

To get layers....make sure you let the previous layer cool mostly before pouring the next. To get swirls....pour the next layer while the previous one is still liquid.

Make sure you put something under your molds just in case you drip (like I did).

The crayons smell kinda bad when they melt, so be prepared.

Using molds with less detail in them will make them easier to clean (I will update you later on how well the dishwasher did on this as well).

Have fun!