Old Crayons Made New Again.

Man, can you believe how hot it is outside?  You could literally fry an egg on the sidewalk.  Then I remembered something I had seen on Pinterest.  Crayons melted down into new shapes in ice cube trays.  Now I'm sure you're thinking, why would this crazy lady turn on her oven when it is 39 degrees outside?  Well, we didn't.  We melted these in the Van?!?  I know, crazy.  I couldn't even begin to imagine how it felt for the poor dog that was rescued at lunch time today in someone's vehicle.  What is wrong with people... they need they're head shaken.  That's a whole different story I'll get into later ;)  Sorry, the how to, right.

I'm sure if your house is anything like mine, you have tons of broken and worn down crayons. Have the kids track down as many as they can.  I think we used about 30, but it doesn't reall matter.

Next, have them peel the wraper off.  The kids started off helping really good, but grew tired of this quickly.  Some seemed like the wrapper just fell off, and others seemed like they were glued on. Weird since we used all Crayola. 

Next they broke them up into small pieces and put like colours together.

The kids decided which colours they wanted to put together into the moulds.  The moulds are silicone and I got them at Ikea for $1.49 each.

We put them onto a cookie sheet and placed them on the dashboard in the van.
After about 30 minutes they were looking quite shiny.

Some of us are more patient then others, but after 60 minutes they were done.

I popped them into the freezer for a couple of minutes to make sure they were cool enough to take out.

EDIT: If your sun decides to hide in the clouds, you can melt them in a 200 degree oven in about 15 minutes.
Voila, brand new crayons to colour with.

We are using ours as a gift to the kids at the end of the school year.

Happy Crafting

Popsicle Puzzle

Hello friends and fellow crafters! I just wanted to share a very easy craft with items that you probably already have handy. All you need is about 8 or 9 popsicle sticks (large or small) some white glue and a photo (either 4x6 or 5x7 depending on the size of the popsicle sticks) I used 9 large and a 5x7 photo. Lay your popsicle sticks side by side, glue the entire back of your photo and lay it across the middle of the popsicle sticks face up. Set aside and let it dry (we did this overnight) When it is dry, take an exacto knife (or scissors) and cut in between each popsicle stick. Shuffle the sticks and let the kids put the stick puzzle back together. Voila! I thought this might work great for a kids party invitation. You could mail them out and the recipients could have fun assembling them to figure out what it said. Just a thought :) Here's a couple I did with my kids.

Happy Crafting