Posted on by Launi

Confetti Crayons

I’ve seen these all over the place lately and have been anxious to try them. You may have tons of crayons around your house–but if not, luckily, they are about 25 cents in all the Back To School sales now-a-days.

Peel off the paper. When I was a kid–this was easy. But crayons today are a bit more snooty.  They have some plastic stuff under the paper to help the crayons not break so easy–which also makes the paper harder to get off. Ask for help. I was surprised at how many people like to take the paper off of crayons.

Break them up and sort them into whatever color combos interest you.

Drop them in paper lined cupcake pans. Heat the oven to 350 degrees, then turn it off. Set the pan on the top rack and leave them there for about 10-15 minutes…

until they look about like this.

Set them in the freezer for about an hour.

Peel them out of the paper…

and there you have it…

Confetti Crayons for your very favorite little artists.

108 Replies to “Confetti Crayons”

  3. I did this with left over crayons in my classroom but my students did not like to color with them. They could not get into little areas and they were not comfortable to hold. I loved they way they looked, like peanut butter cups, but no one wanted to use them.

  6. You know, I wondered if there was a way to make them a different shape. I even tried using a close pin to pinch the paper cups so they’d have pointed ends. It didn’t work because then the cup didn’t fit in the pan. I’ll keep thinking though and we’ll figure something out.

    Thanks for the insight–it’s really making my brain gears turn.

  8. I think it’s way fun!!! I LOVE the colors all swirled together!!! Looks pretty easy to do too!!! I know there are some ages of kids that don’t like to use the broken weird crayons… so this would be a fun way to re-vamp those! Stars would be really cute too!!! I’m sure it depends on what age of children you’re working with because I know they would be a hit with the little ones in my world! 🙂

  9. try using mini muffin pans instead of the regular sizes. My 2 year old can easily colour with these and they are a great substitute for the expensive crayola beginner crayons.

  12. I’ve seen these done in the small heart shaped tins and given out with valentines cards to classrooms at Valentines day… Neat!

  13. Could you maybe recycle chapstick tubes? Seal one end with tape or something, coat with a little oil. Or use some of that Mold ‘n Pour to make crayon shaped molds. They’d be flat on one side, but then they wouldn’t roll around.

  14. I noticed if you left them in for too long the wax would separate and the blob would not color at all.

  15. I saw this on Stumble and was intrigued.I read the comments and Bamm! it hit me . Have you tried resin molds? You get them at craft stores but you would have to find a way to melt the crayon before you put it in the mold unless you used the red silicon variety which come to think about it are used in the oven but doesn’t have such varied shapes.

  16. What a fun idea, and an even better way to use up those broken pieces that everyone ends up with after the kids have had ten minutes with the box. =)

  18. You can use cookie cutters while the wax is just starting to cool to make neat shapes. I made little butterfly necklaces for Rebekah’s last birthday party. (Of course I had to carefully drill a hole for the ribbon to make it wearable as a necklace.)

  19. Holy moly… there are so many more great ideas!!! Now we have a justified reason to buy more cheap crayons and even go to the craft stores! 😉 I KNEW I should’ve snagged that Micheal’s coupon from my MIL’s Sunday paper when she offered it to me! 😉

  20. I agree that these would be tough to use if you were coloring something that had to be precise. But for ” just for fun ” all over the paper coloring…these would be perfect! I can’t wait to get my little ones peeling away crayon paper tonight!

  21. Those would not only be fun to do with the kids they would be fun FOR the kids. True, you couldn’t quite color and stay within the lines using such thick crayons, but just to make scribbles and swirls for the fun of making them, they would just delight to children. Great post!

  22. What if you put some essential oil in the wax–homemade scented tarts like yankee candles sell for some ridiculous amount of money per tart–haven’t tried it, but it might be fun–maybe you could still color with them and then have scented art for the fridge..hmmm

  23. My dad, sisters and i use to do this all the time with our old crayons when i was little. we used these strange little candy molds tho and they seemed to work great

  26. Oh, I know. The first batch I totally forgot about until an hour later. They were ok on the bottom, but the tops just blended together. It was sad.

  27. No, I haven’t tried that. In fact, I am totally going out tomorrow and checking out the different silicon bake ware. This is really fun!

  28. Oh, I know. When my kids were small, I had big TUBS full of busted up crayons. I could have used that tub the other day. It felt funny to have to buy new crayons to break up.

  30. I would love to see how to do the cookie cutter thing. Seriously, that sounds so great! Did you put the wax in a big pan and melt them all in one place? I need to hear about this.

  32. Yeah, I’m just thinking big blank paper rather than coloring book pictures. Wouldn’t this be fun for littler hands?

  33. I’d actually like to color with them just to see how they feel. Maybe that’s next for me. “Scribble Art with Launi.” Ha. I’d love it!

  34. Hi, I love this idea, so much that I made a bunch earlier this year. The problem I ran into was the wax separating, but I see someone addressed why that happened already…Thanks…I also tried making some in a silicone tray and it stained the tray and it wasn’t smooth so the colors sort of bled. Good luck, I’ll be going out and buying more crayons to try this again.

  35. Ok, now I hadn’t thought of that. I wonder though, if it would make the wax too oily to color with…still, if they smelled fabulous, maybe they could be used in a warmer. Again, I say…hmmmmm…

  36. I’m going to look for some old metal candy mold. That sounds like a good bet that we could find the best shapes.

  37. I used to make these when I was a kid. My dad made little molds out of aluminum foil. This way you can make them pointed and easier to color in lines with.

    Thanks for reminding me about this fun project. My little one and I just pulled our batch out of the oven. She’s so excited to color with them.

  39. I made them with my little brother now they are in the oven we’re waiting from them to get ready …i hope he likes it 🙂 thnx

  40. THEY GOT BURNED ON 35O DEGREE>>> I THINK NOW THEY’R ON THE FREEZER
    HOPE THEY’R NOT WRONG

  42. These are fun to make if you’ve got crayon pieces that no one is using anymore… putting them back into good use! Also… you can make fun new swirly colors! 🙂 Nothing too fancy or profound… just fun and happy! 😉

  43. You know those ice trays that make cylinder shaped ice to put into bottles? Could you melt the crayons and then pour them into the ice trays to harden in the cylinder shape?

  51. You should sign up to receive Michael’s emails at http://www.michaels.com so you can receive coupons via email. If you sign up between now and Aug 31, 2009, you will receive a 50% off any one regular priced item coupon. I’ve been signed up for months now, and most weeks I get a 40% off coupon with the occasional 50% off. So far, I think there’s only been about 2 weeks (not in a row!) that I didn’t get some kind of good coupon. And the beauty of it is that you can print multiples and use one each day during the week the coupon is good. Or if you take someone with you to the store, you can both use one. 🙂

    (And no, I don’t work for Michael’s, I’m just a cheapskate who’s addicted to crafting, LOL!)

  52. How about using a cooling rack lined with foil, or even an oven rack? You can press the foil into the gaps to make a tube shape, and pinch the ends to make points. Just fill the gaps with your crayon sections and they should melt to create half-rounded crayons.

  53. On a side note, I made a ton of these for a yard sale not too long ago. They sold well, but take care NOT to jiggle the pan while you’re moving it from the oven to wherever. When the colors mix (for the most part), you get an ugly brown mess, and if you’re anything like me, you say ugly words.

  54. Pingback: Confetti Crayons! « My Daily Adventures

  55. http://hidoghee.wordpress.com/2009/08/30/confetti-crayons/ !

    I just had to do it, and it was so fun, though you were right about the paper-tearing part. My mom used a tiny knife and cut a line down the crayon while I peeled off the paper and it worked alright, but it STILL took a while! And, haha, we may not be as “perfect” as your’s but I am certain they will do just fine when scribbletime comes!

    Currently I am scanning your blog for other little activities, ’cause I love arts and crafts to death! If you have anything you have not posted on here or feel like recommending something you have posted, just tell me! I’m ALL for trying anything right now.

  58. Nice tip Kylie… coupons are AWESOME!!! 🙂 How fun is it to get something for HALF price!!! Shopping anyone?!? 😉

  59. Yours are so big! They remind me of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups! What a great idea to have the glittery kind! It’s fun that you tried it and linked it here… we’ll have to think up some more fun crafts to try!

  60. Mmhmm, I got that same comment from my friend! We have way too many crayons, so we weren’t shy at all and experimented with many colors to a confetti crayon! And the glittery blue one was actually one of the bigger ones, we had thin ones and thick ones and even tiny ones, but the tiny ones didn’t turn out as great. Not that it matters though, they’re gonna work all the same in the end!

    Also, I hope you do! The more crafts people make up, the more fun! I know I’m open for most anything.

  61. I tried this project last night and had LOADS of fun with it! I don’t have any kids, but I’m going to try to sell some at my craft booth in a couple of weeks at a local festival. I hope you don’t mind that I linked out to this post in my blog. And if you feel so inclined, feel free to come check out my blog and link to me:

    http://beadthatway.blogspot.com/

    I was thinking about shapes, too. Would those newer flexible plastic cupcake molds work? Hobby Lobby and Michael’s has them there in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.

    Thanks for the great idea and keep at it!

    Summer 🙂

  63. wow! I’m 17, have no siblings and still made these!! They are so aweosme. i’m going to sell them as a fundraiser for my chorus trip!!

  64. Wow! These are really adorable!
    I’d love to give them to some little kid or another
    (all of my friends have little brothers or sisters).
    I think they’d make a very cute present if you wrapped them up in a basic cardboard box with boring string, but then open them up and! Yay!
    Although secretly i’m going to make some for myself (:
    Good work, nice basic tutorial with easy to understand steps and pictures. Keep it up!
    xx.

  65. Update:

    I sold sandwich baggies of 4 for $1 and sold a whole bunch of them. The only problem I had was that they kept melting in the sun! I had to put most of them in the ice chest and keep rotating them with the displayed ones. Little kids loved the fact that after a whole entire day of being told not to touch anything, they could actually touch these and experiment with them. I sold lots to grandmas, too. They were really cheap so it was very hard for the adults to say no. 🙂 Thanks again!

  66. The oven rack is such a good idea. You could take it out to make the foil smooth. Maybe shaping it with a pen or pencil. You’d have to leave it there until it cooled. It would be scary to move it to the freezer while its melted in just foil though.

  70. I just made these for some of my kindergartners, and I can tell they’re going to really love them. The colors turned out beautiful, but somehow every muffin cup in my pan got mysteriously lined with a thin layer of melted crayon. I didn’t notice this until after I pulled the paper cups out, and now they’re all solid and stuck. I was wondering if the muffin pan is ruined, or if you know of any way to get it all safely out.

  71. I’d warm up the oven again–250-300 and set the pan back in for about 5-10 minutes…you know, until it warms back up. I would take it out and wash it with dish soap and hot water and a scrubbie of some sort. It’s just the oil from the crayon that leached through the muffin papers and it should come out just fine.

  72. This is going to shock you all, but when i made these as a kid we never even used an oven. We would put the crayons outside in the morning and the next day they would be waiting for us all mixed and molded. It was always fun to go discover what we had created the next day. Try that with your kids, if the weather permits. We always would put them in a leftover box or interesting shape thing we found. Sometimes the most fun part was the texture.
    This reminds we of another craft we all used to make in our desks. We would color in the top of our pencil boxes (the kind with the indented square on the top) and we would make a design or color our names. Then we would fill it with elmer’s glue. If we left the glue to dry (overnight in our desks) we would come back to find custom designed bookmarks!

  73. You know, my mom did this with my brother, sister and I all the time when we were little. We used the mini muffin tins without paper cups, though. We always used them to color in the backgrounds of our drawings, not so much for actually coloring in a drawing. Try to combine colors together with a background in mind: different blues, purples, and greens for water or different greens for a forest or grass or something.

    This is a great way to clean out your crayon collection, by the way. If you’re like we were, each kid needs a new set of crayons every year so you end up with tons of used ones (many of which have lost their papers anyways) that never end up getting used again.

  75. I realize this was posted a year ago, but I just found it 🙂
    I was remaking crayons in the ’80’s for my kids. I used candy molds. There are so many shapes that are more manageable and that can color in the smaller spaces. I hope someone sees this and it helps!

  77. You know…I remember my crayons being left out overnight and coming back to a huge blob of “ruined” crayons. I should have tried doing it on purpose! ha ha

  78. Before we did this for the blog—I had just barely given away a HUGE bag of busted up crayons to charity. Then, when I wanted to make these I had to go buy brand new crayons. Can you believe that? sheesh.
    :]

  80. u could always get a candle wick and make them into candles i don’t know if they would smell good unless you like the smell of crayons

  81. Just tried this with my kids with all our broken crayons and they loved it! Nice too because they are each unique and they can “claim” their own creations and not fight over them! Thanks!

  82. I had trouble with the wax leaking through the paper baking cups, which then stained my pans. Perhaps wax or foil cups would work better?

  83. This is great, but by now someone should be selling some crayon molds for a better shape than just a circle. For now, maybe I will check out some candy molds. I would rather have a normal crayon mold though. OH Well!!!! Still a great project.

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  86. I tried this the other day and loved it! An idea for anyone who wants to try it… I have some of those silicone baking things that are shaped like snowflakes, christmas trees, and snowmen. They work perfect for a christmas gift or stocking stuffer for kids! Those paired with a couple of coloring books make for a cheap, simple, fun, and effective gift!

  87. thanks, these were fun to make! I’m 18 and don’t have any kids haha, I just made these as a fun little craft, and just using them as a decoration. they’re neat!

  88. I made these before, and I know how hard it is to get the paper off! I found that if you make a slit down the paper with an exacto knife, it comes off all in one. Its way easier!! Hope this helped!

  90. I made these almost immediately after I found this tutorial! They are so cute! I used a large and a mini muffin pan and I must say even though the large crayons are thicker and easier for larger hands (adult size?) the mini ones are just as adorable! I actually love them better. Thank you so much for this.

  91. My wife made a batch of these about two years ago, and they are the only set of crayons that are not broken into little pieces. These really are great, and it is a great way not to waste broken crayons, and my kids love to break crayons.

  92. wo i was looking for a scince project for a week and there it is …why dont crayons mix togather when they are melted and witch one mix the best or dont mix the best thank you you are a life saver

  93. I just found some oven-safe silicone molds in dinosaur shapes that I’m gonna have to try. I think it would be perfect if you had a little boy around 🙂 (Or even a girl like me that loves dinos!)

  94. I use regular (inexpensive) candy molds from the craft store in the same way I would use them for candy…… First melt the crayons in either a muffin pan with foil liner or my favorite way is in the microwave in the waxy disposable bathroom cups then pour into desired mold. I just made Toy Story ones for my nephews birthday in a mold I got off eBay for about a dollar. My son is looking forward to his Star Wars ones we are making next. Not great for “detail” coloring but amazing for 2-3 year olds that are basically just scribbling and learning colors. Also agree with the idea of mixing different blues for water backgrounds or greens for landscapes like someone else mentioned!! Fun and easy–except peeling paper….! Check with local elementary or preschools, it might be a great way you can help them recycle by reshaping their old crayons plus the kids have most likely broken and peeled them for you!!

  95. Great idea about recycling the school crayons. I remember the teachers telling us to take the paper off the crayons, when I was a kid. That way we could color with them sideways. Thanks!

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  97. I think these would be just great for doing rubbings – like to get texture, or for gravestones, etc. The wide flat bottom would be great for that!

  99. This is super cute! I am going to make these for my neice and nephew! THanks so much for the awesome idea!

    take a peek at my place, borntobeblonde.com!!!

  100. Do you think you could also use a cookie sheet and use wax paper and make a whole sheet and just break it off? I’m going to try that soon..

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