Mama Gone Green is a blog dedicated to raising happy children and reducing our impact on the Earth. My name is Taryn and I am the mother of 2 young kids and an environmental studies instructor at a community college in Portland, Oregon. Please join me as I journey through life as a mama, teacher, knitter, photographer, gardener, and environmentalist!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Recycled Crayons


Here is a great way to use all those small bits of crayons that you have no use for: make new (and better) crayons from your old scraps!
Remove ALL wrappers from crayons and cut into small pieces (1/2-inch long segments work just fine). Preheat oven to around 200 degrees. Coat a muffin pan with a LOT of olive oil spray. Even better choices would be to dedicate a muffin pan to crayon-making (but still spray it!) or using cupcake liners if you are worried about damage to your muffin tin. Fill muffin tins approximately 1-inch deep with crayon pieces, and feel free to mix in colors any which way you choose! Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until all crayon chunks are melted. Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY (I know, it is hard to wait, but just do it). Once cool, tip muffin pan over and bang underneath each mold. Alternatively, you could put the tin in the freezer, which makes it easier to remove crayons, or use a utensil to loosen crayon at edges.
I decided to use Finn's favorite dinosaur muffin tin and sprayed it before putting the crayon pieces in. The crayons came out pretty easily, but there were a few spots that the wax just stuck to, even though I had thoroughly prepared the tray. It took me about 5 minutes of cleaning to get all of the melted wax out... this is where it would be really nice to have a muffin tin just for crayons, and you wouldn't have to sweat the missed wax here or there.
Now you have a quick and easy way to turn your crayon-yuck into crayon-hooray! Pin It Now!

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