Recycled Muffins . . .

When I have my kids home for a day, it always helps to have a fun little project to do together. I've seen this idea of recycled crayons in several different places and thought we should finally try it since we cleaned out our craft closet last week and found an ample supply of broken, stubby crayons. Here's the recipe for these non-traditional muffins:

1. Sort through your crayons and find all the broken ones. I have to admit, I only used Crayola crayons for this project. All the restaurant and wannabe crayons got dumped!
2. Peel the paper off all the crayons. This is the time consuming part. I recommend putting on a show while doing this to avoid boredom and complaining.
3. Spray a muffin tin with Pam or like cooking spray. We used mini muffin tins, but you could use regular sized if you have enough crayons. Sort crayons depending on effect you want your crayons to have. We decided on like color families (warm, cool) but with a variegated effect.
4. Place muffin tins in a 275 degree oven for 8 minutes. Keep an eye on crayons to make sure they are all melted - mine needed a minute longer.
5. Remove muffin tins carefully. I used a toothpick at this point to swirl the colors in my crayons a bit. Let crayons cool for about 10 - 15 minutes. Place tins in freezer to cool completely and loosen crayons. I turned my tins over onto wax paper after the freezer step and most of the crayons just slipped right out. I did have to scrub some wax out of the muffin tins.
6. Enjoy the results - chubby, tie-dyed, recycled crayons!

RedDog watching the crayons melt in the oven.

The finished product! Cool crayons great for little scribblers or big scribblers who want to make an impression!