Recycled Wedding Crayons

When I first went looking for places to have our wedding, I called a place reputed to have locally grown eco-friendly food. I thought, right up our ally!!

Well until, she told me the additional price I would have to pay for the linens, "because you don't want just plain restaurant linens."(snooty tone) I countered with... "can't we just put down art paper... and let everyone color? "

You could actually hear her gaping on the other end of the phone, mouth wide open. "ha, ha" I nervously added, "just kidding?"


Well it was our party... which meant crayons were allowed to be a part of it! (That particular restaurant was not.)

We collected old used, no longer loved crayons locally. Then the neighborhood kiddo's and I, peeled and sorted them all, hundreds of them. We took a crack at melting them in different ways, and subsequently shaping them in different ways. The results were very cool!

To make the hearts (in ice cube molds):
http://www.instructables.com/id/ReUse_ReMake_Crayons/

To make the tea sets (with cookie cutters):
http://dannyseo.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/new-crayons-from-old-one.html



Pro's & Cons
Both the hearts and tea cups went over well, and were great for making rubbing's, people left us love notes, and many were taken home as favors.

I liked that the ice cube mold technique allowed us to not have much, if any waist. I also liked the ways these felt in your hands. The kids could help with popping out the crayons from the molds and deciding about colors & shapes.

The cookie cutter technique, made some wild designs in the crayons themselves! Some really were just gorgeous. But also seemed to separate in to layers a bit, making them not as sturdy. Stir up the mixture a bit when it comes out of the oven, to make designs and mix up the layers that separated. I don't know if only using one type of crayon (like Crayola's only) would improve this. The cookie cutter technique was also not quite as child friendly. I found it to be slightly messier & melting more temperamental (different colors have different melting points). I let it sit to long once in the oven.. crayon smoke filled the kitchen... smelled like crayons for days :-) .