I thought this was a fantastic idea if you are awash with crayons.....

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

New crayons from old ones

Wow they look really pretty. My children however both eat crayons.

They look great! Can't help thinking if I tried it I'd end up with a sludgy brown mess, though...

i did that once. we used tiny little moulds and made shapes and letter. worked really well. a cheap and (relatively) easy gift!

Cool, we may have to have a go at that.
My kids mostly use felt tips now but we have loads of crayons left over so this may be quite fun to make.

we used old coke cans the we cut the tops off. (obviously be careful!) then dipped the cans with the crayons in a pan of boiling water. then once melted put them in a deep tray with boiling water in it to keep them liquid while we poured them into the moulds.
each can had a different colour so we had a bit more control. (no brown sludginess!)

I don't want to rain on anyones parade but is this safe? I just thinking of Chemicals & heat and not designed for this?

i doesn't take much to melt crayons. they'll get soft under a hot lamp!

crayons are basically just wax so there will not be any real chemical risk - as has been said children often eat them without ill-effect!

Oh! thank you we have lots

Here's another idea

craftydaisies.com/2007/07/26/crayon-nibbles/

link

Would make a fab Christmas gift if wrapped in Celophane.

How lovely!

Is it easy to get the wax sheet out of the baking tray though? Worried it would stick.

would it be wrong to actually buy new crayons to do this?!

fabulous!

we make new heart shaped crayons by melting them together in an (old) heart shaped muffin tin

J2O - I am

No I bought new ones (v cheap for a big box from hobbycraft) as DS's hands are too small to hold the crayons.

It's easy to get off the muffin tray.

They're a bit difficult to use when they come out of the freezer, you need to let them get back to room temperature, then it's fine.

we only have one pack of crayons. used to have a bin full of them from when i was little but chucked them.

I am loving this credit-crunch thriftiness!

My oven only goes to 250 though , will see how it goes.

thanks for this idea!

brilliant, they really DO look good enough to give as gifts!!!!

I think that is 350 farenheit btw. What would that be in Centigrade? The other link says 265 degrees F

Ah, cool.

I just found these if anyone else wants cheap cutters without getting orf there arses:

shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=butterfly+cookie+cutter

about 180 celcius i think.

Check out my photos

I wouldn't woory too much about your oven not being hot enough. We ended up with something similar after the box of crayons was left out in the garden on a hot summer afternoon (remember those)