The Not So Great Project

****Updated at bottom****

Several nights ago I could not sleep, so what do I do? Go check Google Reader to see if there are any new interesting reads or projects I need to do. I found one that looked like too much fun. The idea was to melt left over crayons in silicon bakeware in the shape of the alphabet. That way when they cooled, you pop them out and voila! You have cute ABC crayons. I immediately had visions, I mean GRAND visions of birthday gifts in my head. I hit the buy button and received my purchase within a couple of days. I could not hold off, I immediately began pulling all the paper off some cheap crayons I had bought for another project and broke them into pieces, placing them in the mold. Stuck them in the oven at 250 for 20 minutes and pulled them out. They didn't turn out exactly how I imagined or saw on the Let's Explore Blog After going back and looking at the blog I remember now that she broke a few of hers too. I think I may have broken the exact same ones. OH WELL.

RESULTS:

A. I was disappointed that the molds were as small as they were

B. She said to not use washable crayons and I didn't but still got the same effect she spoke of......clear coating floating to the top of my crayons. So the real color that you are suppose to see is upside down. UGH. I blame this on the fact that I used cheap crayons from Hobby Lobby that were 64 crayons for $.99. Anyway, I was going to brag on how easy, cheap and cute this idea was, but it ended up taking a long time to peel all the paper off and pull them out of the molds in the end. I did find it funny though that some of the cheap crayons had different paper on them, some had multiple layers of paper and some had completely different paper all together layered upon each other. Crazy!! If you want to try this cute project I suggest having a knife near by to help shave off a corner of the crayon so that the paper comes off easier. Also, even though the molds are small you will need atleast 2 crayons per letter to make them thick enough for coloring with. Kids can definitely help break the crayons.....I think I just lectured Ella last week on NOT breaking crayons, but anyway. I think I will try this again with better crayons and will shave all the paper off my crayons before getting started. Hopefully, I will get better results next time.

Going into the oven as broken crayons...

Coming out of the oven as liquid letters....

The end product on the good side of the crayons....

The bad side of the crayons...

****Update****

I decided to try again only on the letters I broke and on the ones that I couldn't just flip over and have the bright color side up. This time I used the real deal, Crayola Crayons. They did not say anything about being washable and the paper just flew off these babies. I was able to tell a noticable difference immediately after pulling them out of the oven. They were a vibrant color and did not have bits of color floating on the surface like my last batch had. So, in the future if you would like to try this project, use the pricyer crayons from Crayola instead of the no name $.99 ones. :) You will be happy that you spent the time on this cute project only if you use the right product! Have a happy day because I am..... I just had a fabulous Pumpkin Spice Creme from Starbucks!! YUMMMMM!!!