I know you have some crayons that are short, stubby, paper gone or in shreds. Perfect crayons don’t last long. I have a solution for all of those left over and unwanted stubby crayons. Here’s my version of how to make a new Recycled Chunky Crayon!
Get out your old crayons. Take off the paper (if it is still on) and break them up into smaller pieces (kids love to help with this.)
Spray your muffin tin (below is a mini muffin tin) with vegetable spray and pour some crayons into each spot. The more or less you put depends on what size you want for each chunky crayon. You can also group the crayons into colors that are fun together, red and blue for purple, pink tones or blue tones.
Place the muffin tin full of crayons into a preheated oven of 275 degrees F. I used both mini muffin tins and large muffin tins. Watch them carefully, they will melt fast. Bake them for about 7-8 minutes. When they look melted enough, carefully and slowly remove them from the oven. You can stir them with a toothpick for a swirly look, or leave them as is. Let them cool completely (can be placed in the freezer to speed up process once the tin is not so hot.)
Once cooled, the crayons can be popped out of the muffin tin, tap the back to help this process. Then get the paper out and your ready to color. I like the pink and brown one, it looks like a pig. On the left, we tried to make a red, white, and blue one.
Here are a few different variations to the Chunky Crayon by Kiddin Around:
- Variation #1: instead of using a muffin tin, use metal cookie cutters in whatever shapes you like, on a flat cookie sheet that’s been lined with tin foil.
- Variation #2: Put old crayon chunks into small paper cups, and place them in the microwave for about 4 – 6 minutes on ‘high.’ Pour the melted wax into candy molds, and then place them in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Once the wax has hardened, your new crayons will pop out of the molds.
Written by Marie LeBaron
Marie LeBaron is the founder and managing editor of Make and Takes. Always having a love of crafts, she enjoys getting messy with glue and glitter. There’s always some sort of project going on, her kitchen counter is often cluttered with crafts. When she’s not crafting and creating with her kids, she loves to run, read, and blog! Read other posts by Marie
{ 66 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this idea! We have to periodically do this at my house because, with three kids, we end up with A LOT of crayons – LOL! I used frog and ladybug molds for mine, but I really like your chunky style – definitely easy for little hands :-)
I’m friends with Meriel, and I’ve been blog-stalking you for a while. I LOVE YOUR IDEAS!! I’m really excited for my baby to get a little older so we can start doing some of the fun things you do. I refer people to your site all of the time! Thanks for the fun ideas, (and the Pork Satay recipe was amazing!!!)
This idea is great! Thanks for sharing. My little guy would love these! Please post anymore great ideas.
I want to do this. thanks for sharing. I love to see what you come up with next.
We’ve done this before but ours didn’t turn out as nice as yours. The colors are great!
I love this idea!
What an awesome idea; Mack would love this! I love Lu Lu’s art work – too funny!
Fab! I’m going to try it right now!
Too much fun! Gonna do it!!
my friends and i made this it was really fun we gave it to her kindergarden class they LOVED them.
We found that the silicone ice trays work really well for this purpose because the bending form makes it easy to pop them out. Ikea sells them in a triangle, cylinder and puzzle piece shape. We also did ours in layers. Check out the pictures: http://www.chicaandjo.com/2008/04/16/recycle-old-broken-crayons-into-fun-new-shapes/
I am only 11 but I LOVE doing crafts with my little brothers and this is perfect!!
Thanks for the inspiration!!!!
http://my2gs.blogspot.com/2008/05/recycled-chunky-crayons.html
i absolutely love this idea! i tried it and it turned out great. and my daughter loves to mix her favorite colors together. she made an orange and pink, green and pink and she wants to even hang them in her room– lol!– well anyways thank you!
I did this with heart shaped muffin pans last year for my grandkids. They loved them! I forget where my daughter got the idea, but it was too cute!
My daughter (almost 4) and I made these funky chunky crayons. We used the fluted cylicone cupcake molds. No spray needed. Coloring with these crayons was so much fun because we could draw 4 lines in 4 different colors, all at the same time, due to the fluted sides. Thanks for posting!
I love this idea so much. I’m going to try it when I have some free time with my kids. My daughter loves to peal the paper off of crayons, so this will be the perfect thing to do with the old ones.
Thanks!!!!
Whoa, this is so cool! Y’know, I used to have a Crayola Crayon Maker a couple years ago, whick does the same thing… Only it cost like 30 bucks. Wish I had done this instead!
Thanks for this idea of recycling old crayons. I did this project with my 3 year old and loved it. I think I was as curious about the outcome as he was! I discovered that these big, chunky, multi-colored crayons are excellent for leaf rubbings. The rubbings look like works of art!
This is a great idea, but you should NEVER EVER put crayons in the microwave. Bad things can happen… just be patient and use the oven!
Wow! I really love this idea! Just made a batch of my own for my friends.
I loved this idea! I made some as gifts for my daughter’s friends and they were a big hit. And all I did was recycle her unused crayons! Well done. Keep posting.
Tried dipping them, candle style? Seems like it would work, maybe using wire instead of string so you could pull it out of the wax when you’re done.
I just bought two silicone molds at Target (they were in the bins at the front-$2.50 each). They had one with snowmen and one with Christmas trees. I am going to make some for my kindergarten classroom (lots of used crayons there!) and if they turn out well I am going to give them as gifts to the class for Christmas.
Thanks for sharing this. I have tons of crayons for this.
My older daughter did this with her old crayons and is giving them to my younger daughter for Christmas.
Just tried this at home…
DO NOT melt the crayons in the microwave! I almost broke my microwave doing this. It overheated and burned the dixie cups I was using. If you don’t want to put crayons in your brand new muffin tin, try putting foil muffin cups on a cookie sheet and melting them in there. Then use those to pour into the candy molds. I tried this and it worked very well.
Katie – Thanks for the tip! The oven seems to work just great for us!
I’ve done this before & I added glitter to the muffin tins. It made glitter chunky crayons!!! Blessings, laura
I made these for Valentine’s and they turned out so cute in heart shapes! Mine turned out a little powdery almost like oil pastels… does anyone know what I could do to prevent this? OR how to fix it? They are really messy to touch and I’m not sure my first graders need messy crayons on their hands and clothes..
We do this all the time. The kids love it!
You guys should check out crazycrayons.com :)
Great idea!
I blogged about this at http://goinggreenandsavinggreen.blogspot.com/2009/08/reusing-old-crayons.html
Can’t wait to try it for my toddler!
Thank you so much. Your website came up on the first page. I made these 35 years ago when I was teaching in a Pre-School for LAUSD. Now I am doing Life Skills (mentally/physically challenged children) and thought it would be a great idea to help our little ones hold on to crayons to color. Thanks again for reminding me of the “recipe.”
what a cool idea !
hey thank for the idea i dont know if i should use spray or dont so write me back
Thanks for this awesome idea! I’m making them as Christmas gifts for my daughter’s toddler time classmates. I used canola spray and they popped right out (albeit I need to wipe the spray off of the finished products). FYI for others–I used CraZArt crayons (got them for 10 cents a box in the back-to-school bins!). They melt very nicely, but the original paper is a bear to pull off since it’s stuck pretty well to the crayons.
I just made some of these today. Love them!
http://sixgoldencoins.blogspot.com/2010/02/getting-our-valentines-craftiness-on.html
We made some in the shape of bugs and gave them out as favors at our “bug party”. Thanks for the inspiration!!!
oops, forgot the link! You Rock! Great tutorial!
http://quirkymomma.com/2009/recycled-crayons
I have a bunch of “old” jello molds that would work well with the microwave method. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! I was looking for something fun to do while babysitting and this is perfect! Thanks again!
perfect idea!
Laila says “I love the idea, I just did this and waiting for it to cool, I am 6 years old and love to draw and color”
Luv the idea! I just tried it… I found out that crayola crayons melt better than some of the other cheap ones I tried to use…
What a fantastic idea, and I bet they don’t break like regular ones!
I’m excited to do this project with my 5 yr old son! I remember doing it as a child in daycare and now I can share it with him!! Thank you for the directions!!
Thanks for this. I have an 18 month old, and we recently bought some crayons for 25 cents because school supplies are on sale. She enjoys them, but they break too easily. I find broken pieces all over the carpet and who knows where else. :) I’m going to make some mini cupcake tin crayons tonight for her to use a little easier. Thanks again!
Thanks so much for this tutorial. My daughter is lovin this activity!!!!!!
Wow! I never thought of that.. My daughter went through a phase where she unwrapped and broke every crayon she had.. I wish I would have known about this idea before I threw them all away! It just made me NUTSO seeing all the broken crayons. Do different brands melt at different temps? I know the cheap restaurant ones are made of different stuff than crayola…
-Molly
Antique Jewelry
I am almost sorry that I found the perfect crayons to last a long long time… Stockmar Beeswax Crayonblocks. I do use them to melt sometimes, on a iron, but not like this. I will have to ask around if others have left over crayons – I love this idea!
Sabine, the Netherlands
Thank you I have done this and it works great!! I have been purchasing the special crayons one esty (simlar to these http://www.etsy.com/listing/67348680/recycled-race-cars-crayons ) and using the leftovers for make one big block and it wonderful. The kids love the orginal fun shapes and when they are unusable they love seeing how they can become new crayons!!
Thank you
I tried this today and the kids were super excited BUT I melted them in the microwave as instructed above and really bad things happened!! The microwave overheated, the paper cups nearly caught fire and the temp got so high that the glass in the microwave broke!!!
We made these over the last week – thanks for the great post!
http://eskimomomma.blogspot.com/2011/02/colorful-valentines-day.html
Just want to let you know boys and I have made recycled chunky crayons. It worked! We all really enjoy it a lot even it kept boys busy to unwrapped the broken crayons without running or fighting around and they choose which colors to put in cupcakes pan. They loved it and they both thought it was cool how it worked. They are almost 8 and 4 years old. Thanks!
Using an exacto knife instead of peeling crayons works much faster!
hello all
im so pleased to joined the group and im amazed with these pretty and handy idea.
now i will go home and try recycling my daughters crzyons for new one and take some to my daughter’s school for her friends to share ;)
thanks again
this seems so much fun cant wait to do it
My daughter and I just made these this morning and it worked perfectly! We used a silicone daisy mold worked wonderfully when taking them out just gave it a little pull in each direction. My daughter is only 2 and she was able to peel the crayons, sort the colors, and is SO excited to use them now! She actually wanted to take the paper off her good crayons just to do it again! haha :)
What would be really kool is to get small magnets to put into the center of the muffin tin (if muffin tin is silicone) and make urself some fridge magnets… only problem would be they would probably leave a mess on your refrigerator lol but seems like a decent use of the wax if it’s not being used for anything else.
I really love these, and have included them in my post on the 101 coolest craft projects to make re-using items in your home. I suggest a cute twist -use a 9-muffin tin to make crayons that resemble the 9 planets in the solar system (or the 8 planets and the sun, if you are a pluto-hater).
http://liverichandfree.blogspot.com/2011/10/101-coolest-reuseable-craft-projects.html
THanks alot
Thank you so much for these great directions. My class just made some and them are gorgeous!
Here is a tip to easily remove the paper on the crayons; use a sharp knife (like dad’s pocket knife) to slice through in a straight line from top to bottom. Makes the paper come right off in a cylinder – saves, like, 5 minutes per crayon! The knife does score the crayon as well but since they are to be melted anyway…no worries!
Thanks for sharing. I have some of these from when I was a kid that I use with my kids for leaf rubbings. I think I will do this with my Girl Scout Troop as a fun “reuse” project as I have a ton of old crayons. I like the idea of how to get a variety of shapes.
I found you on pinterest and I made these for valentine gifts and they were so super simple.