Spring is here?  Easter coming and I thought about a great project for kids that encompasses Easter and an easy kid-friendly activity and DIY Easter Eggs is both!  Every little kid loves to draw. My nephew is no exception.  The thing with traditional crayons is they break easily and then the broken ones don’t get their intended use.  Molding a crayon that is an easier size for small hands is a great way to use the crayons fully without the frustration of breaking them.  An Easter Egg shape for the season is a bonus.

Materials:

Crayons
Silicone mold
Cookie sheet
Plastic cups or bowls

How-To:

Separate the crayons by colors. I did not use the browns, blacks, tans, and whites although you certainly can. I divided by reds, oranges, yellows, blues, purples, greens – and my pack had metallic colors so I did only metallic colors as well.  

Next I used a very sharp X-Acto knife to cut off all the crayon wrappers. If this is an activity you are doing with your children, make sure the adult uses the knife – it is very easy to cut yourself!  Run the knife lengthwise down the crayon and the wrapper should easily come off.

Next, break the crayons into pieces – small enough to fit into the molds, but not too small. If they are too small, you won’t have the major color differences in your crayons. For my mold, I broke each crayon into 3 or 4 pieces. Once I broke them I put each group of colors into a plastic cup so I could mix them and wouldn’t get tiny pieces of crayons lost. (Side note: if you have a dog that sheds, you might not want to do it on the carpet otherwise your crayons WILL have dog hair).

Next preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Put your mold on a cookie sheet, as it’s easier to handle. Decide what you want to do as far as colors for the crayons. Some I did like colors as in yellows, oranges, and reds, or blues, greens, and purples. Others I just mixed random colors to have a sort of rainbow crayon. It is completely up to you or your children as to your themes. Do not be afraid to stack the crayons higher than the top of the mold because they will melt down. If you don’t over fill them, they won’t fill up the whole mold and the crayon will be smaller.

Bake the crayons for 15 minutes. It is important to note that any type of crayons will work. But from my experience, name brand crayons such as Crayola Crayons melt quicker and the colors will stay more defined. When you bake them, be sure all the crayons are melted before you pull them out of the oven. I used a toothpick to pop the air bubbles on the top of the crayons immediately after I pulled them out of the oven.

Let them cool for 15 minutes and then pop the mold in the freezer for an hour just to be sure they are completely cooled and have hardened. Once they are completely cool, pop them out of the mold and you are ready to color! These crayons are great because as I’ve said they not only decrease choking hazards, you get multiple colors in one crayon. In one swipe of the crayon you have the possibility of getting several colors at once! It’s a great rainy day activity and the kids love to help and obviously love to color once the crayons are done!

Happy Coloring!!!