Christmas Crayons

I wanted to make something special for my Sunday School kiddos for Christmas. I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a special craft we could do or a yummy treat I could make, but nothing was "clicking" with me.

Finally, I got to thinking about all the extra crayons I had lying around in bags - leftover crayons that were either broken or just not being used anymore by my kiddos. Then it hit me....I could make something for my kiddos with the leftover crayons!!

I debated back and forth about how I should do all this, and finally I settled on melting crayons into Christmas molds (i.e. cookie cutters). I had a Christmas tree, a bell, and gingerbread man to try out. At first I chopped up a bunch of green crayon and some brown crayon and put them in a Christmas tree cookie cutter. I then transported them to the microwave, and tried melting them directly in the cookie cutter. Bad idea!! It just melted and leaked all over the place.

I did some research on the internet, and found some crayon shapes that had the layered look. People would melt one color, put it in the mold, let it dry, and then put another layer on top. I put each of my crayon colors in separate little cups, and decided to give it a try.

Here's my little working station in my room....

As you can probably tell, this was towards the beginning of my project when everything was still pretty neat and tidy. :) Towards the end...well, let's just say I never wanted to see another crayon for as long as I lived. Especially a green crayon!!!

My poor microwave was overworked for this lil' Christmas project. In fact, a couple of times it just gave out on me because it just got too overheated with how many times I was melting crayon inside of it!!

As a "reward" for all its hard work, my microwave got a "make-over". The container I had in the microwave decided to crack while I had a bunch of green melted crayon inside. Let's just say, there was melted crayon EVERYWHERE!! All the crayon was wiped up eventually and I scrubbed with every type of soap and cleaner I could think of, but I think my microwave has the permanent "green look" for the rest of its life. Oh well...it was for a good cause!!!

So here is a picture of the end result.... Each of my kiddos got a Christmas tree and either a bell or a gingerbread man. Although they are not perfect, I think they turned out pretty cute! :)

My kiddos were excited to see these little goody bags in their boxes today in Sunday School! When I showed one of the boys what they were, and I told him that he could take the crayons home to color with, he was like, "Okay, Miss Follett, I will color with them and then I will bring them back to you!" I tried explaining to him that they were his to keep. :) See, I could have let them color with them in Sunday School, but I was too chicken. After all the time I spent on them, I just couldn't bear the thought of watching them get used and perhaps abused :). It's okay if that happens at home, but I just didn't want to personally see it happen!!!

Another child was slightly disappointed that they weren't something to eat, but I reassured her that she would have plenty of other things to eat, and that these crayons probably wouldn't taste that good!!

Oh yes, gotta love kiddos!!