DIY: Special Shapes Crayon Gift

My close friend recently had a birthday party for both of her sons, who were turning 4 and 1. I am all about giving meaningful gifts, preferably homemade, so I thought to myself, "Self, what can I make that an active four-year-old boy will LOVE?" After a few days, my inner crafty goddess came up with this fantastic idea: make fun crayons to give with an awesome coloring book!

Here is a little known fact about me- I love to color. I mean, really love to color. I may or may not recieve a new coloring book and box of crayons every year for Easter well into my twenties because I love it so much! So naturally I have accumulated quite the collection throughout the years Plus, I was a teacher for a year, not including the four years I spent in and out of classrooms, so I stocked up because of that too. Do you know how rough children, even teens, are on crayons?! It really is astonishing. All that to say that this project is a great way to use up all those broken crayons to make something new and beautiful!

So, let's get started! The first thing to do is to gather the crayons! I am a little obsessed with organization, so I began by separating crayons into colors first. I knew I wanted to make some crayons using one color each (with varying shades) and some mixed so I kept that in mind. I must say, I had fun reading the creative color names courtesy Crayola :).

Sorted crayons and my bin o' fun

Now, you need to peel the labels off all those pretty color-makers! Trust me here, you do not want to sit there for hours and tear off all of that paper. I found that using a small knife was the easiest- just firmly run the blade along the length of the crayon and the whole label will come right off. Next comes the fun part: breaking the crayons into the molds! 

You will want to use silicone molds in whatever shape you fancy. I found mine at my supermarket in the shapes of cars and dinosaurs...so fun! There are tons of shapes out there to choose from. Break your crayons into small pieces and arrange them into the molds. Use about 2-3 crayons in each shape in order to get it nice and full when they melt. If your shapes aren't filled enough, the "new" crayons will be too fragile and break when you take them out of the molds.

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Super cool cars and dinosaurs molds. Only $2 each!

Crayons broken into molds. Most of these turned out on the small side, so I ended up having to add more and re-melt. Word of advice: add more than you think you need!

Now you're ready to melt! Put your molds on a baking sheet (simply for easy handling) and into a preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until everything is nice and melted. If you happen to have any air bubbles in the canyons, just pop them with a toothpick.

Fresh from the oven! Note: the front middle car is an example of too small...the rest are perfect!

Let cool completely before popping from the molds. Warm crayons are broken crayons, especially intricate shapes like those dinos. If they break, just put it back in to melt and try again. 

Aren't they fun?! I especially love the "solid" trucks- the marbling makes them look like little camo trucks!

Package them up with a coloring book or two, and you have yourself a great and affordable gift that anyone would love! My favorite four year old just loved them! Score!