ALPHABET CRAYONS

After the splash pad, we came home to make alphabet crayons. I had seen them on many different blogs but finally found the molds on Let's Explore. I had bought the Letter Ice silicone molds aka alphabet ice cube trays MONTHS earlier with the intention of making them but I completely forgot. Now I see they also offer number molds and ideas for other uses for the molds. Guess I will be trying them too! After cleaning out Elijah's back pack the night before and organizing the left over school supplies I realized they have a ton of broken crayons.

What do you do with broken crayons?

Throw them away, right?

NO SILLY!!

You make alphabet crayons!!

The night before we all sat on Elijah's bedroom floor and peeled the paper off of all the crayons. That part is the most tedious. I have a suggestion ~ once a crayon breaks peel the paper off and save them in a bowl or jar for later use that way you aren't spending tons of time peeling the paper off of tons of broken crayons at once!!

First you stick the broken crayons (NOTE: Do NOT use washable crayons!) into the Letter Ice silicone molds. We decided to make them multi-colored and just stuck random broken crayons into the molds breaking them if needed to fit properly.

Place the molds onto a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 275 degrees.

The instructions say for 20 minutes but I did it for just 15 because of the nagging children and the crayons came out fine. I also ended up lowering the temperature a bit after several batches and they turned out fine too. It said to let them cool in the oven if you are doing the multi colored crayons so the colors won't mix and turn brown BUT again the nagging children would've sent me off running to the funny farm SO we just took them out VERY CAREFULLY and placed them in the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes. Don't leave them in the refrigerator or freezer too long or they break easier during the take out process.

Finally the moment came and the crayons were removed!

Aren't they cool!!

Some of the letters were harder than others to remove without breaking. They do not stick at all but some are harder than others to get out of the grooves. It gets a little easier with each batch but some letters were impossible for ME. For instance, in about six batches of the complete alphabet (I said we had TONS of broken crayons!) I only managed to get one N, one S, no M and no H. Oh well we had plenty of other letters!!

What do you do with alphabet crayons?

Color with them like any other crayon

Display them in their room spelling out their name

or

use them as a little add on gift at a birthday party like we did when Elijah went to a birthday party the next day. We spelled out his friends' name and wrapped them separately. His friend thought they were cool and they thought I was crafty ~ win win if you ask me!!!

Needless to say we have tons of alphabet crayons now!

We sent some to his friend. Some went home with Avani. The rest I put in a jar so they don't get broke all at once and they look very colorful in the jar on their dresser until they use them all! I will probably give them away at parties too. They wanted to display their name on a shelf BUT since both the boys' have an "H" in their name and we broke every singe "H" this wasn't happening. Maybe next time!!