"Recycled Crayons"

We made some new crayons using old crayons, thanks to the help of this blog post at Lil Blue Boo:
http://www.lilblueboo.com/2012/03/recycled-crayons-a-tutorial.html

We had WAY more broken and unwrapped crayons than I thought.  For this entire project, I only used about half of what I ended up with here.

These silicone ice cube trays come in fun shapes and can be found for only $1! I also put foil underneath on the cookie sheet since it was one of my "good" ones. Don't forget to preheat the oven. I used the lowest setting on mine, which was "warm".

Little Miss R just had to peel more wrappers off. It was good help since she really wanted pink crayons.

 

I used a sharp knife and carefully cut the crayons into very small pieces. I think next time I try slightly larger pieces to see how the finished product looks.  They key, either way I think, is to put colors together that can go together.  Too many colors = brown crayons. Also, the washable ones leave a white wax on the top of each crayon, so I tried to mix washable with regular.

 

I tried to heap a pile in each spot, but in the end I could have used even more.  They really melt down, so pile it in there!

 

I checked on these often and left them in the oven until I couldn't see any more un-melted chunks. Once they were all liquid, I SLOWLY put the cookie sheet on  cooling rack until they were...

 

CRAYONS!

 

 

Christmas Card Wreath and Christmas Projects

I needed a way to get the beginnings of our stack of Christmas cards off of the dining room table, but I didn't have a lot around the house.

No better season to use what we already have, right?

I used a piece of card stock, but I think it would be best with an actual base for a wreath - a flat, wooden circle or even a cool metal one if that's your style.  Also on the list of supplies: scissors, pencil, markers and clothespins.

Using a bowl, I traced a circle and cut it out.  The hole in the circle (below) is what I used to start cutting out the middle of the circle.

I used my daughter's markers and made a candy-cane-looking pattern.  You could use fabric on a hard base, cork, or a flat color.

With the Crayola markers, I made some simple patterns on a few clothespins.  This would be way cool if they were painted with acrylic paint or sprinkled with glitter.  I've also seen some people cover them with a strip of scrapbooking pages.

 

Finally, I clipped my Christmas cards on and hung it on the wall.  As we get more cards in the mail, I'll add them. Because of the way my wreath is constructed, I have to put the cards evenly on both sides or it will spin around on the wall.

 

 

 

 

In other news, we've been busy making Christmas crafts...

 

 

 

...and enjoying some beautiful gifts (the baby AND the sweater).

 

This week, I found a zippered pouch that I'd stored away and decided to personalize it a little.  It's made of duffle bag material, but a regular sewing needle went through it easily. I used 3 strands of embroidery floss and decided on a monogram for the "design".

 

First, I measured out the center and drew my "K" on the front with a ball point pen.  (I knew I'd be embroidering over it, so it wasn't a big deal to me.

 

I did a main outline in a light brown (above) and follwed in the empty spaces with light silver.

I finished with another solid line of dark silver... Ta-dah!

 This will be a good, manly diaper pouch for when my man takes our little girl to the park...

Playtime Ideas

My little girl likes to sit with me and pretend she's putting on make-up when I do, so I saved some old compacts, scraped out the makeup, and put a coat of acrylic paint on the inside.
 
I thought she'd feel like she has the fancy stuff.  Too bad she noticed I scraped all the old crusty make-up out. Apparently she liked that part...