DIY Rainbow Crayons

Because weekdays are spent mostly for work, I try to spend most of my weekends with Fi. Since sleep is also important to both of us, I also try to limit our commitments to one a weekend (though it's quite hard). It's much easier for us to entertain ourselves at home because Sofia loves doing a lot of things. She loves doing worksheets or learning books, as long as you stamp every page that she's done, and you give her a treat when she does 10 pages. She also loves baking and arts and crafts and she loves it the most when she gets to combine those two activities - like when we made our own shrinky dinks.

A few weekends back, we did another similar project! We made Rainbow Crayons by recycling Sofia's old crayons we didn't want to use anymore.

Step 1: We unwrapped the crayons for recycling
and sorted them by color

Step 2: Then we broke the crayons in smaller pieces to fit in
the mold mixing similar or complimenting colors together.

Tip: you'll need to use a silicone baking mold. You can use the Ikea Ice Trays but they are made of synthetic rubber (stamped with USE ONLY FOR WATER) so you need to make sure you keep the heat really low. In a conventional oven, that would be around 250degrees.

Step 3: We put the crayons in our arts and crafts toaster oven
because I was guessing it had lower heat, and it was easier
for me to watch, or unplug (if required).

Step 4: Mid-way through the baking process when you see
the crayons starting to melt, just out the tray quickly and
use a toothpick to remove the bubbles. Don't mix too much,
So you won't lose the marbled effect

Step 5: After baking, you need to cool the crayons.
 I put ours in the freezer for around 20-30 minutes.

Tip: It's hard to clean melted crayon wax so ensure you line your baking tray and freezer with foil. Also, make sure you only use a mold you don't plan on using for food ever again.

Step 6: Once the wax was hard, I just ran warm water on the
back of the tray and we just started popping the crayons out. 

Voila!

Sofia's new (old) Rainbow Crayons

Tip: It would probably be easier to make crayons using the flower mold, because some breakage happens at the weak point between the fish body and tail. (We broke 2 out of 12) However, with a child's grip I think it would be easier for them to color with the shape of the fish.

If you want to smoothen the uneven side of the
crayons, you just need to do some coloring.

I hope you enjoy making Rainbow Crayons as much as we did! just saying.