I had to LOL when I read Lee Ann’s comment on Trish’s blog today. It is like she knew I was going to post this. DO NOT THROW THOSE OLD CRAYONS AWAY LEE ANN I HAVE A USE FOR THEM… or just stick them in the mail to me and I will reuse them. 😀 Okie dokie here is my dealio. Isaac is learning to color but he keeps breaking all the crayons. I was over at my friend Amanda’s house and she had these cool crayons called Silky Crayons. They were crayons in what appeared to be a glue stick container. But of course why buy them when you can make them? (At this point some of you are thinking why make them when you can buy them). So it got my brain a-thinking. I had left over glue sticks from when I taught classes in Hawaii (yes I know I keep everything). If I melted those down and put them in empty glue stick containers Isaac wouldn’t break the crayons. So I set out to do just that. Here is how I did it.
1. I took two crayons that were similiar shades and pealed the wrapper off of them and broke them all and put them in a dixie cup to melt in the microwave.
2. I cleaned out the glue sticks with any excess glue. I wasn’t too particular about getting all the glue out because he will never use all that crayon and get down to the glue part anyway. Then I made sure all the glue sticks were twisted all the way down so I could pour the melted crayon in the glue stick.
3. I then microwaved the crayons for 3-4 minutes.
5. So then I remelt the remaining crayon mess and pour a little more all the way to the top of the glue stick and then I let it harden. It will look like this…
Now Shannon from EightCrazy can probably design a super cool label to put on each of the glue sticks (hint! hint!) but right now mine just have the old label on it. So then I got to thinking even more. Uh oh! How am I going to store these babies? So I had to make a little holder for it. I had no pattern so I kind of “winged” it. It didn’t work as well as I had planned but it is good enough.
Then I stiched all the way around leaving an opening to turn the fabric right side out.
I turned it right side out and tucked the opening closed and then top stiched around the whole rectangle.
I folded the bottom part up about 2 1/2″ and stiched the left and right side to make a big pocket. Then I marked every 1 1/2″ and pinned and stitched those for the holes to store the sticks in. I made a mistake on mine and didn’t make the fabric 8″ x 14″ in the beginning so I have a small hole at the end that I guess I will store a pencil in. Oopsie.
After I finished it I realized Isaac could wear it as well. He thought it was so cool to have his new crayons under his big fat belly.
Here’s what it looked like finished (minus the pencil).
And here it is all rolled up. This will be nice to take into restaurants. The crayons they give you at restuarants seem to be the cheapest ones out there and they break way too easy as well.
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OMGosh! I just threw out TWO empty glue stick containers. Actually one was empty the other had hardened beyond use. Who knew, that I could make those fabulous crayons? You never cease to amaze me and I am wishing I would have known you while you were here. You rock!!
You are a machine lately. How much coffee are you drinking in the morning? =)
VERY creative. You never cease to amaze me either!
just went to trish’s blog to see what you were talking about. That is hilarious that LeeAnn said that!
it’s me again…. you should submit your tip on how to make these crayons and recycle to the Tip Junkie http://www.tipjunkie.com/submit.asp
Yes that is amazing! I will be searching Anna’s craft boxes later today to find old or empty glue sticks (I know she just opened new ones yesterday) and will clean out my crayon box. And yes, you do rock!
I wasn’t too interested in the Mac n cheese container until Eryn suggested putting goodies in it. So much niceer than a paper plate and who wants to buy a tin. I’ll have to keep my eye out for something similar.
Beckie,
I featured you today on Today’s Creative Blog!
Email me for your Creative Blog blinkie. krjdemmon@comcast.net
great idea!!!!
Clearly you are a crafting genius! How your brain thinks of these thing I will never know… congrads on the Today’s Creative Blog… you deserve IT!!!
Wow! I was a preschool teacher for years and had a huge supply of both glue sticks and broken crayons! I just came here from “todays creative blog” Love your site and your ideas! I’ll be back!
I linked from Kim’s at TCB. You have such great ideas, my brain just doesn’t work that way..Love the crayon idea!!
Wow, you are on a roll girl! You’ve even got my mom hooked on your blog to see what you’ll come up with next!
That is about the coolest idea I have ever seen. I work at a daycare and we have a ton of of broken crayons and we go through glue stixs like crazy.
That is about the coolest idea I have ever seen. I work at a daycare and we have a ton of of broken crayons and we go through glue stixs like crazy.
Thanks, Pinterest for finding this cool idea for me. 🙂
That is funny that you found it that way..embarrassed by my horrible picture taking ability back then.
Man I have thrown away so many glue sticks and crayons in the past 17 years it is not even funny.We could of had a huge collection of these LOL well now I have a reason to break the crayons now roflmao TY for sharing this
This is an awesome idea! Since I teach at a school with 600+ kids, trust me, I have PLENTY of broken crayons…too bad I threw out all those empty glue sticks! 🙁 I am sure that it won’t take long to have more, so I am re-pinning this idea for future reference!
Amazedly cool! I have never heard of silkies before. My son doesn’t like to color with crayons, so this is a perfect substitute.
I’m thinking that old chapstick containers might work just as well, even if it is a little smaller. I go through enough of those when I forget to take it out of my pockets before washing.
Did you try this? I am wondering if it will work… As well as the other kind of Glue Stick tubes..
Yes I tried it out and it worked for me.
Love this idea, would work well for my students with special needs!
Great idea! No more broken bits! Love love
LOVE this! I just made some in glue stick containers and chap stick containers. They are much neater in the bag I take when going to restaurants & Dr. appts! Plus they don’t break. And if he does break one, I just have to melt more crayon and start over. Great idea!
Great idea, but it didn’t work for me, I made 2 this morning and they won’t twist up. But, I will try again, just have to wait for more glue sticks to be used up…shouldn’t take too long with glue crazy kids 😉
Did you let them cure fully? I let mine sit for a full 24 hours before I try to use them.
I had the same problem, with Elmer’s glue sticks! I made 3, 2 were with the purple disappearing Elmer’s sticks, and the third was with a Roseart. Only the Roseart one worked, and I made all three of them the same way! So I dug all the crayon out of the Elmers stick and tried again, with 2 more Roseart ones that were thankfully in a 3 pack at the dollar store! These 2 worked great! So I guess it just depends on how your glue stick is built whether or not it will work!
Great idea and thanks for the clear description. Some of my students have difficulty grasping even toddler crayons and the tripod-grasp crayons sold commercially don’t always fit well in their hands. Will try your idea with the glue stix and maybe even empty twist-up deodorant containers. I can also put a Velcro strap around the containers to help them maintain their grasp. Thanks again! Karen
Do you think using Chapstick containers would work also? I bought a loy of 100 Chapsticks just in case I wanted to make my own lip balm and I still have quite a few!
I don’t know if the screw inside it is strong enough but it doesn’t hurt to try.
This is AWSOME!! I can’t wait to try this out!! :0)
This took a bit more effort than what it sounded like! All in all, about an hour, and my microwave got really got. I used two packs of old Roseart crayons I had hanging around, and some glue sticks from the dollar store. The crayons took forever to melt, but they seem to have all come out good. Old bits and pieces of crayons would definitely work better. Thanks for the idea!
I loved this idea. I made these crayons, shared them on my blog and referenced your site. You have some Great Ideas, thanks for sharing.
This is so cool! Thanks for sharing. Going to have to wait till we empty some glue sticks ….
Made themand love them. I am a first grade teacher and love being able to reuse the “dead” glue sticks from my classroom as well as the tiny crayon bits that the students no longer like.
Yay that is awesome. I am glad you found my idea helpful.
I didn’t read all the comments but that crayon toolbelt is AWESOME!!! 😀 Love it!!! Must start collecting glue sticks like an old squirrel now… 😀
{giggle} Show me some pic’s when you do 🙂
I was showing my daughter this,
As we were reading, my washing machine started beeping, left my daughter with my phone while I went to deal with it. When I cane back, she had somehow got on to an adult site from the page :-/ normally I restrict safari and you tube.
This is a great idea btw.
Melissa,
I can assure you I have checked my blog over and hire a company to monitor this. Are you sure it was from my site?
Would a lip balm container work? I tried, but it didn’t work
I don’t think it would have the force needed to push it up.
LOVE the idea! Very clever.
I do want to point out that they aren’t really quite the same as Silkies crayons, though, which are water soluble and lay down smooth, oil pastel like color and are very soft and easy to blest. They can also be brushed over with water to spread them like water color pencils.
However, that doesn’t change the awesomeness of your twist up nearly indestructible crayons. Those wold be really great for a purse or other bag since they will neither break into pieces, nor leave crayon all over the inside!
Thanks, Mimi. I guess that’s why they are just “wanna be.” 😉
What is the thing you pour it in to?
Hi Melissa, Are you talking about the old glue sticks?
The ingenuity and creativity of moms never ceases to amaze me! This was shared by one of our members at our group on Cafemom, Holiday and Party Crafts with a link back to your blog for the tutorial. Thanks!
Thank you for the shout out! So glad you all enjoyed. 🙂
If smaller/skinnier crayons are wanted “chapstick” containers could be used!
Thanks for the tip, Melinda! 🙂