Make-it Mondays: Home Baked Crayons

This is a project I have been excited to do for awhile. After teaching Art for a couple years, I have a big box of little Crayola stubs that I couldn't part with. So here is a fun way to reuse them. These make great gifts for small children and a fun art club project as well.

All you need is:

1. Broken, nubby crayons in search of a new home
2. A muffin pan
3. Paper muffin pan liners
4. Oven mitts
5. An oven

1. Divide your crayons by color scheme and peel off any paper. I like staying with analogous and warm or cool color families, but feel free to go crazy!


2. Place paper liners in a muffin pan and fill the cups up with crayon pieces. Most of the gaps will fill in, instead of overflowing.


3. Put your mitts on and the pan in the oven. I preheated my oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and melt time took about 15 minutes. (Times may vary based on brand, so keep an eye on them!)

4. Once melted, remove the pan and let cool until they have solidified and feel cool to the touch.

5. Remove the crayons from the liners and have fun!

Post project thoughts: When the paper liners are peeled off, it is a good idea to rub down the tops, as the edges have thin, flaky pieces. You could also just leave the liners on the crayons to give them as gifts or even leave them in a cute, thrifted muffin pan that doubles as gift wrap and storage for your home baked crayons. The only downside to that is the tie-die effect isn't revealed until they are taken out of the liners. Side project options could be personalized coloring books/pages...mmmm, another tutorial perhaps?