Make your own crayons? Why, we surely did!

Today I was staring at the bucket o' crayons, and I was noticing how many were broken.

We don't have a fancy little crayon maker like the ones that were selling like crazy over Christmas, but we do have an oven that is currently heating our house since our heater won't work today for some reason.

So, I separated the broken crayons from the nice put-together crayons.

I then gave the boys three bowls and put crayons in each bowl--all the same color in each bowl, though.

And then I announced, "Alright!  Start peeling the paper off the crayons!"

Now, I'm not gonna lie--I kind of expected D to be like, "You're the most wonderful mom in the whole wide world!"  while he showered me with hugs and kisses since he L.O.V.E.S. to illegally pull the paper off of the crayons every time he uses them.

Now that I had GIVEN him the opportunity, he lasted maybe 2 minutes before he announced, "I'm done!"  and took off running.

Nice.

So, P and I peeled crayons.

We had a good chat about catechism, wild animals, and other such things boys want to talk about.

I must say this:  If you are a girly-girl and just received a manicure, I do not suggest this activity.  If you are a girly-girl who DOES do this activity, I suggest getting a manicure directly afterwards.

I am not a girly-girl.

Let's just say that after scraping my thumb nails down the sides of the crayons to tear the paper off, I'm now the proud owner of two cuts and a large amount of blood seeping out from underneath my thumbnail.

The crappy crayons that restaurants give you have paper on them that comes off if you simply look at them.

After an hour of peeling, they were my favorites.

Crayola, however--oh, Crayola.  I'm pretty sure they can only be using some sort of government-issued glue on their crayons.  Prepare to really dig into that paper, and if you silently curse the crayons in your head, I'm not going to judge you.

So, after I finished every bowl but one (P was really intent on the bowl of orange crayons), I waited patiently while he finished his bowl.

Then, because I'm anal retentive, I arranged them in order to take a picture.  Aren't they pretty?

I then put them in these deep metal containers that my cousin, who is some corporate big-wig at Wendy's, gave me.  (Apparently they are those metal bins that fast food restaurants use to keep everything in on the prep line.)

Please pick a container that you won't mind if it dies a slow colorful waxy death.  There is a really high chance that you will never be able to use the pan/container for anything other than crayon melting for the rest of its life.

I then stuck them in a 300 degree oven for, I don't know, 10 minutes or so until they were beautiful and melty.  Some crayons, however, are NOT going to melt.  Don't try to force them.  Just accept it.

When the crayons are melted, pour the crayon juice into molds.

I just HAPPENED to have some football molds a friend had just given me last week.

Then set the molds in the refrigerator, or--if you live in a place that actually celebrates winter--set them outside in your garage until they harden.

End result?  NEW CRAYONS, YO! 

We ended up with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and brown.

I was hoping to wait to post a photo of all of them in rainbowetic order, but the process was taking too long, and I'm impatient like that.

Happy crayon making!