Recycled Crayons aka Crayon Cupcakes

What To Do With All Those Crayons....

It is the end of another school year and

your children bring home a pile of crayons....

broken, paper peeled off, and well used.

You empty them out of the well traveled back pack and throw them

in the crayon container with the other broken and well used crayons

or....

Make Crayon Cupcakes!!!!

Turn all the small crayon pieces in to a novelty..
Crayon Cupcakes
Directions at the end of photos.
Just in time for July 4th.... A Patriotic Crayon Cupcake.

This is the crayon pieces after they have been stripped of
the paper wrapper. This is muffin tin with cupcake pan
liners...I recommend doubling them in each cup and DO NOT
use the foil ones.
This is how they look right out of the oven.
Don't stir them or you will have one big dark colored mess.
You may, however, take a toothpick and ever so gently
"swirl" the colors around. Careful...you are working with hot
wax! Adults only at this point.
Finished product when cooled and out of the cupcake paper.
Some of the crayons we used. Originally, we used small, broken
crayons. When those were used up we sorted through the crayon
container to find those that were less sharp, or showed the most
signs of use.
Peeling the paper off is the most teadous of the stages....
I discovered a trick to get the paper off quickly. Everyone cheered
when they saw how easy it was. Especially after we spent so much
time peeling the papers off little by little.

Directions For Crayon Cupcakes:

Do This Only with Adult Supervision! Hot Wax involved!

• Peel the paper wrappers off several broken and well used crayons. Use an assortment of colors. Here is the best tip I can give for getting the paper wrappers off the crayons....have an adult slit the paper length-wise with an exacto knife....viola...hand the crayon to a child and the wrapper comes righit off. Otherwise, the paper peeling gets discouraging and takes too long for little ones (and grown ups)..plus it is hard on the nails!
• After the crayons are bare, break them into small pieces. The smaller they are, the better they melt.
• Line muffin pan cups with TWO (that is double) cupcake papers. Do not use the foil liners, they do not peel away from the crayons as well as the paper.
• Place crayon pieces in the cupcake liners. Fill about 1/4 to 1/3 full. Do not over fill as there will be too many crayons to melt and the colors will mix if you have to heat them too long
• Do not use too many dark colors as they tend to take over any other colors in the mix.
• Preheat oven to 250 degrees
• Place Muffin tin with crayons in the preheated oven.
• Watch closely, it is fun to see the crayons melt, swirl, and transform.
• Leave in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
• Adults only at this point....When crayons have just melted, remove from oven and let them sit.
• Do not stir, the colors will mix and not be very pretty.
• You may, however, use a toothpick to ever so gently swirl the colors together.
• Let the Crayon Cupcakes set for 1-2 hours before you peel the cupcake papers away from them
• Now you have some fun "NEW" Crayons for summer

Save this great activity for summer afternoons when "mom, I'm bored" sets in. Children create their own art supplies and learn about color combinations, mixing, etc. This is also great for teaching color names to toddlers. Sorting by colors and shades reinforces learning in a fun way.

After designing and creating custom colors, my children use their Crayon Cupcakes all summer. Without being recycled, they would have made their way to the bottom of the Crayon Container and most likely been thrown out.

We have been making these for many years at our house. If I forget, the children remind me with words like these...When are we making our Crayon Cupcakes ...look at all these Crayons we need to make Cupcakes with.

Speaking of Crayons.... if you are ever near Easton, Pennsylvania. Visit the Crayola Factory. It is one of my favorite "factory tours" and is located near the NJ/PA Border directly West of New York City. Well worth adding to your travel plans!