When it comes to working on projects with children, sometimes the process is just as exciting as the end result. That is definitely the case with this craft. Crayons left to melt in the car take on a great new shape and are reborn as “car crayons”.
Old crayons are stripped of their paper, chopped up, spooned into a heart-shaped ice cube trays and left in the car on a hot summer day. The result? A lot of laughs and some cool, new multicolored crayons for the kids.
Have your kids peal the labels off a bunch of old crayons and crack them in half.
Using a sharp knife, chop these pieces up into quarter inch chunks and spoon into a lightly oiled ice tray (to prevent sticking). We used a heart-shaped rubber ice tray from IKEA.
Place ice tray on a dish in the back of your car on a hot day. On a really hot day - it won't take more than 10 minutes for the crayons to melt. We also added a few chopped up crayons to some plastic sandwich bags to create "free form" crayons too.
We went to the park for about 30 minutes - when we returned - the kids were thrilled to find the crayons had completely melted.
Success!
Set melted crayons in fridge to cool and harden and you've got a new set of crayons. Just twist tray to release.
Ken
July 14, 2010 at 7:37 am
Camilla,
what a creative and fun idea for the kids. I will definitely try this one, as long as they don’t make it a habit of leaving the crayons to melt in the car.
Best
ps – listening to Morcheeba currently.
camilla
July 14, 2010 at 7:58 am
Thanks Ken! I agree – can’t let them think it’s ok to just leave a handful of crayons on the seat to see what happens 🙂 ! I’ll check out Morcheeba – thanks for the tip! C
David
July 14, 2010 at 11:49 am
We always had a bucket full of old crayon pieces as kids. This is an awesome way to get “new” crayons with old scraps.I can’t believe they melt so fast.
camilla
July 14, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Yes – I know the bucket you speak of 🙂 C
Steff
July 15, 2010 at 4:59 am
I’ve seen a few crayon tuts all over the web, but to leave them to melt in a hot car is genius! Now, all I need is kids. And a car. Dang.
Pingback
Grace
July 15, 2010 at 6:30 pm
This idea is so cute=)!!!!!!! i love it
CATHY
July 16, 2010 at 4:53 pm
you can also use the idea on a winter day by putting them in cupcake wraps and putting them in your oven at 200 for about 10 min, you get the same effect.
Aunt Jenny
July 17, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Your photographs are wonderful!
Kerry
July 24, 2010 at 6:01 am
Love this idea!
(Its also a good demonstration to kids how dangerously hot a shut car can get in the summertime.)
camilla
July 24, 2010 at 8:27 am
True!
Pingback
Pingback
Denise
August 12, 2011 at 12:50 am
This is such a great idea. My daughter would love this.
jennifer
February 25, 2012 at 7:03 pm
You could make large crayons for little hands by using soap molds. It is also fun to use the small shell soap molds. These can be the “vacation crayons” you use when staying a the beach house.