School is out for the summer, and my kids brought home backpacks stuffed full of the past year’s artwork, old homework papers, half used notebooks and broken crayons. It took me a good hour to go through and sort it all out.
Between the three of them, they brought home at least a hundred used crayons. I decided to do something I haven’t done in a long time: Turn those old crayons into NEW crayons shaped like stars.
It’s really easy to make your own crayons out of old, broken crayons. You can use new crayons, too, but I like to recycle any old ones we have around the house. You simply melt them down in a mold, then pop them out of the mold once the crayons have cooled and hardened. The whole process takes about an hour.
Silicone molds are the easiest way to make crayons into shapes. In the past, I have made our own crayons using LEGO brick and minifigure molds, the Wilton star silicone mold, a flower mold, heart shaped molds and even a mini muffin mold to make circle-shaped crayons. Homemade crayons are fun to give as gifts, prizes and party favors.
The directions for how to make your own crayons are basically the same, no matter which silicone mold shape you pick. This time, I will tell you how we made Star Crayons. This is a good shape for young kids because stars are chunky and easy for them to hold, and they can color with any of the star’s tips.
HOW TO MAKE CRAYONS IN FUN SHAPES (Star Shaped Crayons Craft)
You’ll Need:
- Silicone Mold in desired shape (Star)
- Crayola crayons *NOT washable crayons
- X-acto Knife
HELPFUL TIPS:
The X-acto Knife makes it quick and easy to remove the paper from around the crayon. Use the tip of the knife to cut a slit all the way down the crayon’s paper wrapper. The wrapper should peel right off.
The original Crayola crayons (not the Washable Crayola crayons) work best for this project. Washable crayons do not work at all. I have also found that cheaper, off brand crayons do not work.
Note: If you are concerned about fumes from melted crayon wax, do this craft in a well-ventilated area or outdoors. I melt my crayons in a countertop toaster oven that could be plugged in and used outside if necessary. However, I simply open my kitchen windows for air flow while I melt crayons. I haven’t ever really noticed any crayon fumes, but other people may be more sensitive than me.
Directions:
- Remove paper wrappers from crayons. Break crayons into smaller pieces and place them inside the silicone mold cups. You’ll want to fill each mold about halfway to three-fourths of the way with crayon pieces. The more crayons you melt in the cup, the thicker the finished crayon will be.
- Preheat oven to 220 degrees F. Place crayon-filled silicone mold in the oven and allow the crayons to melt completely. This takes about 20 minutes.
- Once the crayons have completely melted into liquid, carefully remove the silicone mold from the oven. The wax will be extremely hot, do not touch it. Allow crayons to cool and harden completely in the mold. This takes about 20-30 minutes.
- Once the crayons are completely cool in the mold, carefully remove them from the silicone mold. The crayons are ready to use.
Crayon Color Ideas:
Make Rainbow Crayons: Use a mix of broken red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple crayons in the same mold to create one crayon that contains every color of the rainbow!
Make Red, White and Blue Crayons: Use a mix of broken Red, White and Blue crayons to make a pretty patriotic crayon! I like to make this crayon in the star shaped mold for kids to use when they color at patriotic holidays like the Fourth of July.
If you have any questions about the process, please leave them in the comments below. I am happy to help, and will answer any questions as quickly as I can.
Amy says
Are you able to use the silicone molds for food after melting crayons in them?
Nicole says
Hi Amy, I don’t use the silicone molds for food after doing crafts like making crayons in them. The crayons do leave a bit of wax residue behind, which is possible to remove from the silicone. But, I just prefer to use separate molds for preparing foods. Thank you for stopping by with your question. Hope that helps. — Nicole
Cat says
My crayons dip in on the back when they are drying please help!!!
Nicole says
Hi Cat,
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by dip in on the back. Are they drying and cooling on a flat surface? It may have something to do with the way it is drying. If you can provide more details, let me know and I’ll see if I can help troubleshoot. –Nicole
Lisa says
Hello! Do you think spraying the molds with Pam first would help them realease from the mold easier and leave less residue? Is that something you would recommend? Thanks!
Nicole says
Hi Lisa, I have not ever sprayed the molds with Pam, so I do not know how that would affect their release from the molds. When I use silicone molds, the crayons pop out without sticking. In between batches, I have used running hot water and a cleaning toothbrush to remove any film or residue from the molds before making another batch of crayons.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help with this question. Thank you for stopping by with your question! –Nicole
Kim says
Do you need to put the silicon mold tray on a cookie sheet or just place on the rack?
Nicole says
Hi Kim, For the silicon mold tray, it would work just placing it on the rack. But my personal preference is to put it on a cookie sheet since those are easier to grab and put in and out of the oven. Plus, it’s easier to control any spills (hopefully a spill won’t happen – but the cookie sheet would catch any overflow.) Thanks for your question! -Nicole
Haylee says
This is such a great idea! Even though I was wondering if there was a way that you know of that I can shape the crayons without the molding because I don’t have the moldings and all my cookie cutters are bigger. Just wondering if you had any suggestions! Thanks!
Nicole says
Hi Haylee,
Do you happen to have a muffin baking pan? You can line a muffin or mini muffin pan with cupcake liners, and use that as a mold for your crayons. You’ll probably want to fill each muffin cup about halfway or less.
Denise says
I never saw anyone ask for the “recipe”. The temp and timing. What do you recommend?
Nicole says
Hi Denise – The temp and timing are in the directions section above. Here you go: Directions:
Remove paper wrappers from crayons. Break crayons into smaller pieces and place them inside the silicone mold cups. You’ll want to fill each mold about halfway to three-fourths of the way with crayon pieces. The more crayons you melt in the cup, the thicker the finished crayon will be.
Preheat oven to 220 degrees F. Place crayon-filled silicone mold in the oven and allow the crayons to melt completely. This takes about 20 minutes.
Once the crayons have completely melted into liquid, carefully remove the silicone mold from the oven. The wax will be extremely hot, do not touch it. Allow crayons to cool and harden completely in the mold. This takes about 20-30 minutes.
Once the crayons are completely cool in the mold, carefully remove them from the silicone mold. The crayons are ready to use.
Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any more questions. Thanks for stopping by! -Nicole
Bev says
Hey there! Why don’t the washable crayons work? My daughter requested I use them.
Nicole says
Hi Bev,
I haven’t ever tried making them with washable crayons, so I don’t know for sure that it doesn’t work. I just remember when I was looking around online for advice on melting crayons, reading something about how the washable crayons are made with different ingredients so they don’t melt the same way as regular crayons.
I didn’t try melting any washable crayons, since we only had regular crayons anyway.
If you have washable crayons, it may be worth trying to make a small test batch with a couple of washable crayons just to see if they melt correctly. I would suggest not mixing washable crayons with regular crayons since they may have different melting temperatures. If you happen to give this a try with washable crayons, I am curious to know how it turns out. I would love it if you came back to let me know.
Thanks and good luck!
Nicole
Jessica says
For a quicker (and maybe easier) way to take the wrappers off, just throw the crayons into some warm water and the paper just comes right off… for those that don’t come off by themselves, just slide the crayon out.
Samantha says
Hello! Thank you for these wonderful ideas! I have a silicone mold with various Christmas shapes for the students to make ornaments for their families. When I remove the crayons from the oven, could I dip a string in so that it will harden into the crayon to hold the shapes on the tree? If not, do you have any other suggestions to attach string? Thank you!
Nicole says
Hi Samantha, I think that’s a great idea to put the string into the melted wax. I have not tried doing it myself, but I think it should work. You may want to do a test run ahead of time just to be sure. I do have some suggestions that may help. If I was going to do it, I would go ahead and tie my length of string into a circle, and then stick the bottom part of the circle (maybe even the knotted part of the string) into the melted wax. I suggest working very quickly to put the string into the melted wax because the wax starts to harden fairly quickly once it comes out of the oven. Use a toothpick or some sort of tool to help you dip the string so that you don’t burn your fingers. I hope it turns out great for you. I think this sounds like a really fun project! If you make them and share any photos on Instagram, please tag me or share it with me @momfindsout so I can see how they look. 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by and for your questions. I hope that helps! –Nicole
Jen says
What happens if you use washable crayons? I have a pile but not sure which are which.
Nicole says
Hi Jen,
The washable crayons don’t really work well for this craft. If there’s any way to read the crayon’s label and separate the washable crayons from the rest, that would be your best bet. Sorry!
Anna says
I was very excited to read this post! I too have been struggling with wax and color separation, as well as a stained mold. Thank You for your follow through on answering questions, it was a great help!!! I’m excited to try again with all this new info!!
Christine says
My daughter has tried melting the crayons and when melted it is darker on the bottom and light on the top as though the colour has seperated is there a way to stop this from happening
Nicole says
Hi Christine, I think that this is happening because the crayons are melting too quickly. She can try lowering the oven temperature. It will take longer for the crayons to melt at a lower temperature, but it will help prevent the color pigment from separating from the wax. It may take a little trial and error to get it just right, since everyone’s ovens are a little bit different. I hope that answers your question. Thanks for stopping by to ask. Good luck with your crayons. –Nicole
Lisa says
Question for you– does the mold clean out after this? Is there something special I need to use to clean it? I want to be able to use my mold again for food. Thanks for your help! This is a such a fun projects.
Nicole says
Hi Lisa, To clean my molds, I soak them in hot, soapy dishwater and scrub any residue off with a toothbrush. If you use silicone molds, the darker crayon wax sometimes stains the silicone permanently. Hope that helps answer your questions. –Nicole
Beverly says
I have a suggestion, put the wrapped crayons in a bowl of warm water and the paper will slide off easily. (Not too hot or the crayons melt and you have a mess.) I found when using an X-acto knife, it would slip off often and eventually hurt my fingers.
Shannon says
Hi,
I have been trying for a while to do this but have noticed that the crayons separate so a lot of the uncoloured was ends up sitting at the top with no pigment at all … Do you know where I am going wrong xx
Nicole says
Hi Shannon, Great question! I *think* I know what’s going on and how to fix it. It sounds like the crayon color pigment is separating from the wax. This can happen for a couple reasons. 1) The crayon wax melted for too long, and started to separate the color pigment from the wax. 2) The crayon wax was melted at too high a temperature, which caused the color pigment to separate from the wax. Since we aren’t sure exactly which one is causing the problem, you’ll have to sort of play around with the recipe temperature and the length of time the crayons melt. Try lowering the temperature 10-20 degrees and keep a watch on the crayons so you can pull them out of the oven as soon as they have melted all the way through (to the middle.)
I hope that helps! The crayons you have already made that turned out with clear wax at the top can still be used if you have a sharp knife or tool, you can carefully cut away the wax that doesn’t have the color. Let me know if you have any more questions, I’m happy to help you troubleshoot til we get this right. 🙂 —Nicole
Nikki says
Hello, I love this idea and want to make some for party favors for my daughter’s 2 the Moon party…just wondering what me did you use? And how many crayons do you think we’re used? I want to make multiple colored ones and at least three per kid, so I wanted to see how many crayons I would need to buy.
Nicole says
Hi Nikki,
I’m so glad you like the star shaped crayon idea, that sounds really fun for your daughter’s birthday party favors. If you use the same size star shaped silicone mold that I used to make the crayons, I used about four crayons (broken into pieces) per star crayon. You can play around with the crayon thickness (if you want) by adding more or less crayon pieces to the star cup in the mold. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. Have a great party! -Nicole
Martha says
My kids and I just tried this out. We enjoyed making them and I like reusing the crayons. The crayons left a crayon residue?? On the molds after they cooled and we popped the crayons out. Is that normal? Do you clean the molds? Thanks
Nicole says
Hi Martha, I am so glad you and the kids had fun making the crayons. Yes, it is normal for the residue to be left on the molds. The way I get it off is to use hot, soapy water and an old toothbrush to scrub off the residue. –Nicole
Susan says
Do you know of a way to put a hole in them – so I could attach to Christmas presents?
Nicole says
Hi Susan, That’s a good question about the crayons. I haven’t ever tried putting a hole in them, but I do have an idea that might work for you. It could take trial and error to get it right. Or it may not work at all, but I think it could. So here’s what I would try first: After you put the melted crayon wax into the molds, let the wax cool and start to harden. Before the wax gets too hard, stick a wooden dowel or kebab stick through the crayon to create a hole. The timing on this would be tricky because if the wax is too soft, the hole won’t stay when you take the dowel out. If the wax is too hard, the dowel won’t go through.
But maybe, just maybe this could do the trick so you could have a hole in the crayons. I would hope it would not ruin the shape of the crayon, but I simply have no idea how this would turn out. I’ll have to give it a try one of these days.
Another way to try to do this is to stick a skinny wooden dowel or toothpick into the crayon before it completely hardens. Let the crayon continue to harden around the stick and once it is completely cool, see if you’re able to remove the stick to leave a hole.
Okay, my final crazy thought for the night on how to do this is to wait for the crayons to get done and use a small drill bit and see if you can drill a hole in the crayon. If your crayon is thick enough, it could potentially hold together without breaking apart when the drill goes through.
If all of the above ideas just sound too silly to try, I have an easy way out. You could simply attach a crayon to a paper gift tag with a dab of hot glue.
I hope something works out for you. If you do get it figured out, you’ll have to let me know the secret! Good luck! —Nicole
April says
I’ve done this easily with a hot nail.just hold over s candle or in lightly boiling water for a few seconds.
Vivian says
do crazy art crayons work just as good or no does it have to be crayloa
Nicole says
Hi Vivian, I use Crayola so I am not sure how it compares to the Crazy Art for making shaped crayons. I would assume Crazy Art crayons will work, though. But, I have heard this brand of crayons takes longer to melt down than Crayola crayons. So, you may have to adjust the cook time to be a little longer for Crazy Art crayons. Be sure to keep an eye on the crayons while they are in the oven to watch for them to lose their shape and start melting down. I hope that helps! Good luck with your crayons. –Nicole
Lorelai says
What a great idea for kids! Thanks for sharing at the #HomeMattersParty
~Lorleai
Life With Lorelai
Naomi @ Parenting Pod says
This is nice kids would love to do this.
Naomi @ Parenting Pod says
This is nice kids would love to do this.
Sara says
These are so fun! I’m always happy to find something to occupy my kids during the summer! #HomeMattersParty
Melissa says
Man! I wish I had seen this post a few weeks ago! My kids also brought home a million broken pieces of crayons and I tossed them out. I’m saving this one for next time – they would love to see what we can make out of them. Great share for the #HomeMattersParty
Nicole says
Thanks, Melissa! 🙂
Samantha Wiggins says
I’m getting ready to do this one now for my 5 year old. Being quarantined, we have to find fun things to do! We have flowers and Halloween shapes were using(her favorite holiday is Halloween). Thanks so much for this❤️
Emily @DomesticDeadline.com says
When my girls were little and I was on the PTO, the teachers would save the broken crayons for me and give them to me at the end of the school year. The girls and I would make them into heart shaped crayons we would then give out at Valentine’s Day to the students. They always loved them. I love the red, white and blue stars! #HomeMattersParty
Nicole says
Making heart shapes for Valentines is a great idea! I bet the teachers were so happy to give you their crayons to put to a good use. Thanks so much for sharing your story. –Nicole