Unicorn DIY Crayons - Crafting with (and for) Children

Last weekend we were invited to a birthday party. Alba's first party!

Our little friend is a very fashionable baby who has three older brothers, so she has all the toys and games she could possibly need. I don't like giving random gifts, and I don't like turning up empty-handed, but what do you give a lucky little one-year-old like her?
Luckily, her party was themed - Unicorns! Who doesn't love unicorns? I certainly do and Cara gets rather excited about them as well. "There are certain things, Mummy, that you like when you're a baby," she says with grave wisdom, "Then you grow out of them but when you get to a certain age, they're suddenly all cool again!" Unicorns certainly tickle our fancy.
And what else will a darling one-year-old need ample supplies of, at some point in the year to come? Crayons, of course!

Unicorn crayons, ready to be gifted!

It turns out, they're also incredibly easy to make at home - although the process is somewhat messy and cleaning up a bit of a faff, bordering on impossible. So, a word of warning, while you can look at it as 'crafting with children', deending on their age some of the jobs are better done 'for' them.

To turn plain into awesome crayons, you essentially melt them and let them set again in moulds.
There are two ways of doing this:

Either: You melt the crayons in a container in a water bath, then pour them into the mould.

They melt really beautifully - what a sensual colourful soup!

Or: You place chopped up bits of crayons in the mould and melt them in the oven.

Ca. 100-120 degree celsius - they will melt very quickly

You will need:

• Old broken up, new chopped up crayons or a mix of both (expensive brands seem to work equally well as cheap ones) 
• Silicone moulds - I used this for the unicorns (not a sponsored link)
• Baking paper and newspaper to protect your oven and work surfaces 
• A cutter / sharp knife

If melting the crayons in a water bath:

• A pan or pot, ideally an old one you're not hoping to cook in again 
• Empty tins (we used small sweetcorn ones)
• Wooden skewers to stir the wax with
• Thick cable ties (handy but not necessary)

Start by finding yourself a child willing to peel the paper off the crayons. This will make a small mess and keep them occupied for a fair amount of time. When they get fed up, whip out your cutter and bring the job down to a feasible ten minute task by cutting through the paper first. Your children will, in all likelihood, forgive you for wasting their time. They've had fun, after all, even if they got  bit fed up towards the end.

See that look of concentration? Authentic. And lasted well over an hour.

... and in what world is getting a funky picture taken not an added bonus?

If you're bold enough to give this a shot, you will find your feet within a few minutes of starting, but here are a few tips:

Waterbath: Have some tissue or kitchen paper at the ready as you will otherwise leave a trail of water when you lift the pots out of your water bath. Any drops of water in your mold will leave a hole in your finished crayon. Also, obviously your pots will be hot - and the melted wax as well - so be careful: This is where our thick cable ties came in handy, namely as handles, but leaving the lid on the pot also gave me something to hold on to. Stir you melted wax before you pour! And expect some waxy dribble on your work surface and possibly in the pan, hence the suggestion of using an old pan and using newspaper and baking sheets.

Unless you have as many pots as colours, think your colour sequence through first! Yello- orange - red - purple - blue - brown - black will work in one pot, but green - yellow - red will not! (Great opportunity to teach prime colours and the colour wheel!)

We played with pouring two colours in together - it worked nicely. Layers didn't work so well for us but if you let your first layer set, then add another colour, they do stick together but we had gaps on the sides.

Melt in oven: You've chopped your crayons into small bits to load the mould up nicely. However high you pile it, once melted the crayons will not fill the mould. We simply pulled the tray out and dropped a few more pieces in. Topping up with ready melted wax is also an option!

As you don't stir it through in this method, you will find that the waxy parts of the crayons seperate out and your finished piece will have a milky layer that does not give off colour. Here, your cutter comes in handy again to shave the layer off, lest little artists get frustrated with their kit! (That's definitely a job for the grown ups though!)

The milky layer does not give off colour and is best shaved off to avoid frustrating little artists!

Generally, the number of crayons, moulds and pots you have will determine how long the activity takes. The crayons once poured took about half an hour to set for the unicorns, but much less for the some thinner Star Wars ones we also made (that I forgot to take pictures of). You can put them in the fridge to speed it up but I'm not so sure that that is best for the moulds. Speaking of which: Don't expect to be able to use them to make chocolates in afterwards. If you ever work out o clean them to like-new, please let me know how you worked that minor miracle!

Baby Alba has discovered the bum shuffle and even the one-inch step into the kitchen cannot hold her back anymore. Oh so many adventures to be had in the waste paper basket, mummy's bag, the kitchen cupboards (botton shelves), the larder (ground level), the games shelves, the book sheves, the magazine racks... if only that mess could all be scooped up into one big tin and quickly melted into one awesome and meaningful new thing!

"EEEEEHHH!" she cheers, possibly meaning, 'great fun on the floor here with this stuff, come and join me, mum!'