Make Your Own Crayons

How wonderful was your Labor Day? I'm going to go ahead and assume. Pretty wonderful. My Mom came to visit me to explore Greenville and help me get my new place a little more put together. We accomplished a ton and somehow it seemed to create all the more work. 

It made me think of when I was home just a few short weeks ago and helping Mom prepare for the start of the school year with her new Kindergarten class. We just happened to take pictures of that adventure if you care to make your own crayons, for a classroom or yourself.





You Will Need:
-Lots of crayons, old ones that are broken or unused are the best kind. Also, Crayola seems to melt the nicest.
-Molds, either candy molds or fun ice trays
-Empty clean soda cans

Start by peeling the old crayons using a knife down the wrapper. It's best to sort them by color while you're peeling them. It's fine to have a pretty broad spectrum of the same color but if you mix too many outside colors with this method the final color can turn out a little brown-ish. Break the crayons into smaller pieces.



After you're finished peeling and snapping crayons (which is oddly satisfying), fit as many crayons as possible into a soda can. Make sure the can is as full as possible or it will want to tip over when you place into a small pot of boiling water. This little hack makes what is essentially a disposable double boiler. Later as the crayons in the can start melting you can add any crayons that didn't fit into the can on the first go. It takes about 10 minutes or so to get the wax nice and melted. Make sure to use a pan that is not your favorite in case you accidentally get a little wax in there; it's not the easiest thing to wash off.



Mom collects blue apples and they are a part of her classroom theme so the blue apple crayons seemed like a perfect welcome gift for the new kindergartners. Once the wax melts, pour the contents of the can slowly into your chosen molds. Mom used an oven mitt at first but then decided the can wasn't actually that hot and just used her bare hands. I was too much of a pansy to touch it. I don't have that magic force field yet that moms get around their hands to protect from heat, etc.  The wax in the molds may start to dent slightly in the middle. That shouldn't matter, but if it bothers you pour in a tiny bit more wax to fill it. Put the molds in the freezer for about 20 minutes to let the wax harden.



Pop 'em out and you're done! If you get any spill over, it's best to let it harden and then gently trim it with scissors after the crayon has been removed from the mold. You can reuse the same can over and over for the same color. You probably shouldn't use whatever mold you used to make the crayons to hold food again...

We did this all the time when my sister and I were younger--Mom knows all the fun activity secrets. Have you ever made crayons before? Any other tried and true methods to share? I'd love to know!

Sheila

Children's Book Decorations

One of my favorite things to do is make something new with something old.

I hate to throw something away that might be useful, as you may remember. And I love making things for parties or decorations. These flowers (and the banner down below) satisfied all my re-using, re-purposing, fancifying needs.  Plus, they added some cuteness factor for a work event celebrating the service of some of our VISTAs. They were much easier to make than you might expect.

You Will Need:

-Book pages from something your children no longer read (or that have very few words on them so they serve little education purpose to a tutoring program like these)

-scissors

-buttons

-hot glue and sticks

-bamboo skewers

Cut a strip of the page at least 2 inches wide and 8 inches long. Cut fringe in roughly quarter inch increments down one short side about 1-1/2" into the strip. These pages had a little weight to them. For thinner pages, you may want to leave more area uncut so it doesn't tear easily. 

Once all the fringe has been cut, hot glue the uncut end of the strip to the top 1/2" of the skewer. I cut my skewers to different lengths for a little variety. Wrap the strip tightly around the skewer and hot glue the end. It will look a bit like a tassel. Fold down the fringe and hot glue a button to the center. Done! Each flower takes about 5 minutes start to finish.

I also made bunting for the same event but I forgot to take pictures of the finished product :( For that, I cut the pages in triangles. Printed out individual letters that spelled out "Thank You" which I cut into circles. Glue the circles to the center of the triangle and thread some string (I used twine) through them. For fun, you can add a button between each triangle so they more closely match the flowers.



This might also be fun to do with a thrifted version of your favorite children's book. Mine would be "The Oak Inside the Acorn" by Max Lucado. Or anything Dr. Seuss. Or the "Giving Tree." Oh children's books, how I love you all...

Would you be able to use these for a work party? What would your favorite children's book be? I'd love to know!

Sheila

Firework Poppers!

Fireworks are dangerous y'all. 

They are loud. They involve fire... Maybe that's a part of their appeal to the masses. For others, the noise and the danger are unsettling and intrusive. Even illegal. So I came up with something else!

You will need:

Colored rice (food coloring, vinegar, white rice)
2 sheets of paper cut in half, hotdog style
4 toilet paper rolls
markers
tape
4 medium-sized balloons

*Makes 4 poppers.
*This project was originally intended for kids but my test audience (fellow 20-something) and I found them highly entertaining.
*I researched to make sure the rice/food coloring combo wasn't bad for birds. As far as I could find, they'll be fine.

Start with dying the rice. Use 2 tbsp of vinegar with 2 drops of food coloring to 3/4-1/2 c of white rice. Stir it all together and let sit for 5 minutes.

Spread the rice on foil to let it dry. I left it overnight, but I think it was ready in a few hours.

Use the markers to decorate one side of cut paper. Roll the paper around the tube and tape it shut.

Tie the end of the balloon and cut off the very top. Place it around one end of the tube.

Are you ready for the fun part? Take a small handful of rice and put into the open end of the tube. Pull back on the knotted end of the balloon slightly and FIRE! 

See all the rice in the air? It worked way better than I expected. But don't aim these towards your face. We didn't try it but I have a feeling it wouldn't go well.

We even took a video because we weren't sure a photo fully captured the effect. Unfortunately, I'm apparently the world's worst videographer and there's a lot of camera shaking and laughing involved.

Do you love real fireworks or hate them? Would you make these with your kids or for yourself? I'd love to know!

Sheila :)