How to Peel Crayons to Make Recycled Crayons
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You guys have seen our project post about recycling old, broken crayons into new shapes, right? Well, Jo and I are planning on giving a bunch of those recycled crayons to some kids at a local craft fair this weekend, so last weekend we found ourselves making a lot of them. And I do mean a LOT! This meant we had to peel a lot of crayons, so we came up with some tricks for making it easy. If you're planning to make recycled crayons at home, you may enjoy these crayon peeling tips!
How to collect a lot of crayons
If you're recycling crayons, it's probably because your kids have a bunch of broken crayons that they don't want to use anymore, but that you want to recycle into something new. However, if you're looking to make a lot of rainbow crayons for favors, you'll need more crayons to start with.
Kid-friendly restaurants are a great source of crayons, because they usually give two or three to each child diner, and the kids always leave them behind on the table. Take a coffee can to a restaurant and ask the manager or hostess if they'd mind collecting abandoned crayons for you. They'll probably be happy to help, especially if you're collecting for a school or non-profit.
Another great source for inexpensive crayons is a large store like Walmart, during "back to school" shopping season. You can often get a 24-pack of Crayola crayons for as little as 25 cents. That will go a long way towards making fun new crayons!
How to peel crayon labels quickly and easily
In order to make enough striped crayons to hand out to all the kids, we ended up having to peel something like 750 crayons. This was not, as you can imagine, an enticing task. We came up with two tricks that worked well for us.
First, we soaked them. This worked really well for the Crayola brand crayons, which have a nice paper label. We just soaked them in a bowl of water for a little while, and the labels peeled right off.
However, this trick didn't work for the off-brand, generic crayons that we got at the dollar store, because they had a more plastic-y label. For these, we used a trick that McGeeky came up with when he saw us struggling.
His idea required a very specific tool, a Fiskars 12" rotary paper trimmer. First, we took the black, square, cutting mat "stick" out of the trimmer.
Then we plopped two crayons into the channel to serve as a better-sized spacer. These two stayed here the whole time. We put the one to cut on top of them, nestled in the little crook.
A quick slice with the rotary blade and the label was cut along the side.
This made the labels easy to peel away quickly, and was a lot safer than using a craft knife or razor blade!
Which molds to use for making recycled crayons
We used silicone ice cube trays for our crayon molds, because they are available in fun shapes and the crayons pop out easily. One lesson we learned quickly is that we should have gotten extra molds to work with. Most of the time with this project was spent waiting for wax to harden, which was quite frustrating. We really wished that we'd picked up a few more molds to work with, to make the project go so much faster!
How to clean up spilled melted crayon wax
Face it, dealing with melted wax is a messy job. When we made our recycled crayons, there were wax drips everywhere by the time we were done. And cleaning the molds was no day at the beach, either. Then Jo remembered that she had a bottle of candle wax remover tucked away in her pantry. She pulled it out and we found that it worked miracles! We were able to clean everything when we were done, and it was a life saver, for sure. If you don't have any wax remover on hand, you can also give Vaseline petroleum jelly a try. It has the same petroleum base as the remover does, but in milder form. As I mentioned previously, Vaseline is great for removing crayon from hard surfaces (but wax remover is even better!)
Other tips for making crayons
Have you got any tips to share with us about dealing with crayons, wax, and the mess they involve? Or any fun examples of homemade melted crayons? If so, please let us know in the comments!
P.S. If you've got leftover "ugly" colors of crayons that you don't know what to use for, check out our post on making fire starters for your campfire!
15 comments so far:
I tried this a long time ago, melting the crayons in an old mini muffin tin and then waiting for them to harden. My "muffin crayons" ended up with a clear waxy top on them - I've read since it was probably due to the crayons being "washable". Something to look out for.
Great tip, Shell. Thanks for sharing!
Use a blow dryer to soften spilled wax on just about any surface, then just wipe up with a paper towel!
You can also pour a little boiling water on, or inside containers, then soak up and wipe with a paper towel.
Soaking the crayons in ice water allows the paper tubes to slide right off!
Great tips! Loved the one with the paper cutter to make it easier to peel off the paper. Also, never thought of using candle wax remover but, duh!
This is a great idea, and an even better one to give some away to kids at a local craft fair!
I know this post is a two years old now, but I had to comment: the best "how to peel a crayon tip" is have a 2 year old do it! Mine does it in 30 seconds flat! Seriously - she can do one big box of crayons in about 15 minutes! Thanks for the post because I've been wondering what to do with all of our peeled, half-broken crayons!
Hahaha! Nice trick, Outlaw Mom!
i have 11 and I love this webstie even though i feel wierd when I stay all afternoon looking at this website and making all of your cool stuff. I certainly love you guys and I really would like you to post more recycable ideas and crafts because thats what really inspires me. Thanks
We are so happy to be able to inspire you! We'll try and come up with more upcycling ideas for you, promise!
I tried using IKEA's silicone ice trays last year for Valentine crayons for my daughter class and it was a mess, but the Wilton Silicon baking cups peeled off beautifully with almost nothing to clean afterwards.
I bought a snowflake silicone muffin mold at target for $2.50. I am making my son's class snowflake crayons as Christmas gifts. Baked for 10 minutes at 230 degrees, then put in freezer to cool.
Hi. :) Normally the molds available are of different shapes like stars, moons, etc. Can't we get the molds that let us make crayons with their original 'pencil' form? You also referred to sites like amazon.com etc. When I checked out the sites the products cannot be shipped in India. Its difficult to buy products online. Can you tell any site which ships products to India too?
Ringrazio anticipatamente Chica and Jo per il loro lavoro veramente interessante e fantasioso, e suggerisco di usare i pastelli per dipingere con la tecnica dell' Encaustic. Io l'ho fatto e i quadri finiti erano molto carini. Complimenti per il vostro favoloso sito, e buon lavoro. Ciao
I really like this site and me and my sister have enjoyed 'upcycling' old crayons. We've made star one in blue, black and yellow for my birthday (I'm going to be 14) and pink, purple and red hearts for her's (She's going to be 9) It's been a great way to spend are 6 weeks off and mum and dad are really happy that we've saved them money.