How-to: Custom Crayons

I wanted a jazzy title for this post because I am in L.O.V.E with the way that they came out, but i’m currently inhaling too many spray paint fumes (more on that later…) to think creatively…sorry

So here they are!  This is what I was super stoked about on Friday…

And the best part about these is how simple they were to do.

First, take a box of 24 (or any size really) crayola (this is important) crayons.

Why Crayola?  I’m glad you asked…just as any little kid knows, Crayola makes the best crayons.  It’s a good quality wax and awesome color names…come on…cerulean, mac and cheese, purple mountain’s majesty!  (i’m dating myself, but does anybody remember when Crayola did that “name the next crayon” contest…probably back in 1995…my grandmother and I sat for HOURS trying to come up with some good names…but I digress)

Yes, Crayola crayons…take them…remove the paper (this is the most annoying part)  what you will be left with will look like this

and the leftover paper can just be tossed…perhaps there is another more crafty blogger out there with an idea on what to do with these bad boys?  I felt badly throwing them out…

and now the fun part!  Grab a metal cake/cookie pan in the shape you want your crayons to live in…since they are for the wedding I snagged this bad boy at an after Valentine’s Day Clearance sale…

but if you were making crayons for Easter, or Christmas, or a birthday, any other pan would work.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees, and break the naked crayons into pieces.  Here is where you get to be creative, you can either keep them all the same color, or mix and match to make swirly’s (a technical term) like I did

So, now that you have your pan all set and ready to go (at this point the oven is just about hot enough) toss those puppies in for about 10 minutes, until they melt

so after about ten minutes, they will look like this

and they are ready to come out (as a side note, i’m not really sure if crayons can “burn” so i’m not sure if there is any way to “overcook” them…is any crayon experts out there can weigh in, gimme a hollar…i’m curious)

they take a long time to dry/cool/whatever…until they are ready to come out…about a 1/2 hour, but when they do, they. are. awesome!

just pop them out (gently) with your finger, if they are ready, they will slide right out…and then you get:the finished product….voila…custom crayons!

I did a second batch where I just left each color the same, and while they are functional for the little ones, they don’t look nearly as cool.

So there you have it…470 words on crayons.  who wouldda thought?

Have you tried these?  Share a photo, i’d love to see!

now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to get back to those fumes I was referring to earlier…eek…