Running on low...and a mini-DIY

I have a love-hate relationship with teeth.


We obviously need them to chew, speak, etc.  I'm fine with that.
But when my babies are actually getting the teeth...that's the hate part. And did you know that, while in the baby's gums, the teeth have secret meetings where they conspire to only do their growing at night?!  True story.

It's a good thing these kids are cute.

So as you can guess, today, I'm not firing on all cylinders. As a result, this blog post may be a bit choppy.

I wanted to share with a little mini-DIY. I say 'mini' because I forgot some pictures of some of the steps. But you'll get the idea.

So my friend Aimee invited me and two of my kiddos to her kid's birthday party this past weekend, and since I didn't have a single dime to spare to buy them gifts, I thought I'd make them something instead (which people usually want more than store-bought anyways). I knew she'd appreciate the thought and time put in, cuz she's sweet like that.
I had lots of broken crayons in my little crayon bin, so I thought, why not make them some homemade, molded crayons?!   The kids are ages 4, and 2, so this is something they can use.

Here's your DIY:

Supplies:
Lots of crayons
Chocolate molds of different shapes (Any craft store has these or you can buy them online)
A medium sauce pan
A smaller sauce pan, or a tin can (this will make your double boiler)
Spatula

Gather your crayons. I used a bunch of the crayons that were broken, peeling, old, or just plain cheap! Dollar store crayons are also great to use for this.

My sweet friend, Mona, doing the peeling.

I separated my crayons into like colors so that I could blend them and make an assortment.

 

Start some water to boil on the stove in a medium sized sauce pan.  While the water is on, go find a tin can or a smaller sauce pan to use as your double boiler, where you will do the melting.

 

While the water is boiling, stick your tin can or small sauce pan in there. (Make sure if you use a tin can, that you do not touch it with bare hands. It gets very hot!).  Grab your lightest color of crayons and dump them in the smaller sauce pan.  

This is the part I forgot to take a picture of. But basically, you just stir the crayons until they melt completely into a liquid. Make sure the pan isn't too hot, because your wax could burn! 

I did the colors in order from light to dark, so that you could just dump the next color in without having to wash the pan in between. If you get a little yellow into the next color, which would be orange, not a big deal. But if you did yellow and then say, purple, that'd make a different purple than you're probably going for. Get me?

K, next step. 

Look at cute baby is patiently snacking.

Moving on.

Very carefully and slowly pour your first color into the desired molds. Fill as many molds as you want, then move on to your next color. Dump that one in the sauce pan and stir until liquified, then pour that into the molds. Repeat until you've completed all of the desired colors and shapes.

Put your molds into the fridge to set.  This will take about 10-20 minutes.   They're done when you can poke them and there's no 'squish' or give to them. 

Turn the molds over, and your new crayons should just snap right out, lookin' like this!

Make cute little gift boxes out of scrapbooking paper, using this tutorial.

I printed off some coloring pages with Biblical themes from the internet, rolled them up, and attached them to the boxes. Then I wrapped ribbon around to complete the package!

And voila! A new present for a friend.  Enjoy! Come back and let me know if you do this project, and take some pics for your blog or facebook, and let me know you did!