HOW TO MELT CRAYONS INTO FUN SHAPES

You've all seen this Pinterest pic or one like it, right? 

Well, I wanted to make fun crayons for my students, but my house plan is open, and my kitchen is small. Sooo, if I tried this, my entire living area would smell of melting wax. Hmm, what's a girl to do?

How about, I live in the hot, humid South, and it's summertime!!! I thought I would try a little outdoor experiment. 

Let me start from the beginning.
One of the rainy, last days of school, my sweet kiddos got busy sorting all the leftover crayons.  This was AFTER they took home crayons for themselves! 

Once the crayons were sorted, the munchkins began tearing the paper off the crayons. I wish I had pics of these activities.

After the paper was off, the kiddos broke the crayons. This actually became a competition for some of them to see who could break them into the smallest pieces. Whatever works!

These are a few of the bags that came home with me.

And the experiment begins...

I waited for a 95 degree/100 degree heat index day.

I found my holiday ice trays I'd been collecting for just this purpose. 

I placed crayon bits in each individual section of the trays.
Then I set the trays outside on a black metal table,
 and I went back inside.

I checked on them about an hour later,
 and lo and behold, they had begun to melt!! 

I got so excited, I brought my jack-o-lantern ice trays out, too!

Before I knew it, I had all sorts of holiday trays full of melting crayons!

There are pink crayons on the bottom of the hearts. Fun!

Once they were completely melted, I took the crayons inside.
 After about 10 minutes of cool time,
 I placed them in the freezer (another 10 minutes).
Then out of the freezer they came.

At first, I tried to pop them out immediately,
 but it worked better to let them sit for about 20 minutes or so.

I seriously screamed with joy when I saw them!

I love the hearts and stars!

 I was not happy with the way the jack-o-lanterns turned out.
You can't really see the faces so it makes it hard to tell what they are.
I'm going to melt them again!

A few tips:

1) If you want contrasting colors, place the lighter colors in first-   on the bottom of the tray.

2) If you want to speed up this process, place the trays on a cookie sheet and place in your car. Your car WILL smell of melted wax, so get ready.

3) The black metal table was hot and helped the melting process.

4) I found the star and heart ice trays at Dollar Tree in the seasonal items for 4th of July and Valentine's decor.

Happy crayon making!!