DIY Crayon Shapes

Are you ready to turn ordinary broken crayons into vibrant, custom DIY Crayon Shapes? Look no further! In this step-by-step tutorial, we'll teach you how to transform old crayons into new masterpieces using silicone molds. Get ready to unleash your creativity and reduce waste in the process!

Growing up, I remember making these homemade crayons, but we didn’t use molds. We used the cup wrappers from Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups! We would save them from Halloween or whenever we would have Reese’s, and we had decided we were going to make crayons. It was always a fun thing.

Then as a teacher, I decided it would make the perfect candy-free Valentines for my sweet students. I would easily collect the unwrapped, broken crayons out of our classroom box to take home. The first year I did it, I used Reese’s cup wrappers. Then I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun if I could make these into shapes?”

I found a heart silicone mold the next year and the heart-shaped crayons were born! A few years later, after I had Q, I came up with a new way to use these heart-shaped crayons every year.

If you have a big enough mold, these crayons also make wonderful toddler crayons! They are fun shapes, interesting colors, and hard to break. They are also bigger than normal crayons. This makes them easier to grab for our littles who haven’t fully developed the fine motor skills to carefully hold a crayon without breaking it.

This is a fun activity to do with your kids any day of the year! Here’s the process of making these fun crayons!

• Broken, unwrapped crayons
• Silicone mold (various shapes and sizes)
• Cookie sheet
• Oven

Before diving into the crafting process, gather all the necessary materials. You'll need broken crayons, a silicone mold, a cookie sheet, and access to an oven. You can also use full crayons if needed.

Pro-tip: If you're short on broken crayons, consider purchasing a couple of boxes to trade a teacher for their old crayons.

Preheat your oven to 200°F (93°C). It's better to have the oven ready before you begin. So melting the crayons is a quick and easy process.

Take your crayons and make sure they are completely unwrapped. You don’t want paper in your crayons. Some people say that soaking the crayons in water will get the wrapper off best, but typically, I just cut down the side of the crayon using scissors or an Exacto knife. Then the paper just peels right off.

After you take the paper off all of your crayons, break them into various-sized pieces. Just make sure the pieces are small enough to fit in your mold.

Arrange the broken crayon pieces into the silicone mold. You can mix different colors in each mold or stick to a specific color scheme, depending on your preference.

Typically, I like to mix random colors and make rainbow crayons. But occasionally, like when we made these dinosaur crayons, I chose to go the color-themed route.

I made dinosaurs that were blues and greens, yellows and oranges, and purples and pinks. They all turned out so fun! I love the marbled look they got from using different shades of each color! Whatever colors you choose, these crayons always turn out fun.

Place the silicone mold filled with crayons onto a cookie sheet. This step helps stabilize the mold and catch any potential spills during the melting process.

Then, carefully place the cookie sheet with the silicone mold into the preheated oven. Allow the crayons to bake for 10-15 minutes or until they are completely melted together.

Once the crayons have melted, carefully remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Be careful to not mix the colors while handling the mold. I leave the mold on the cookie sheet until the crayons have cooled completely. This should take about 20 minutes. This ensures they solidify and retain their shape once removed from the mold.

After the crayons have cooled, gently pop them out of the silicone mold. If you are using a smaller, detailed mold; be extra careful. We broke many dinosaur heads while trying to pop our crayons out. I prefer simple molds most of the time. Either way, you'll be left with beautiful, custom crayons ready for coloring fun!

Making crayons in silicone molds is a fantastic way to repurpose old crayons and ignite your creativity. No matter who you are crafting for, this DIY project is a fun, simple project. We can’t wait to see what you create!

If you are making these crayons as a gift, we have a card here. It can be used as a topper of a bag, a card you stick crayons to, or even as a label for a whole box of shaped crayons.