Crayon Candle Gift Idea

by My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies

3 Materials

5 Hours

Easy

I had a shoe box full of used crayons and decided it was time to do something with them. We made easy cupcake candles with them and packaged them up into a great gift idea.

I sorted all the crayons into color families, then removed the paper and chopped them into roughly quarter inch pieces with a box cutter. It was tedious to be sure, but I finished chopping all my crayons in one evening. Be sure to use a sharp blade as it makes the chopping go much quicker. I changed my blade 3 times.

Here are some of my containers of chopped crayons.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I used old cupcake tins and standard cupcake liners. I filled each cupcake liner with crayon bits. I set the cupcake tins on cookie sheets and put them in the oven. It took about 10 minutes for the wax to melt. Be sure to watch them closely. If the wax starts to bubble, you want to remove them from your oven.

Set them on the counter to cool. When the was starts to solidify, then insert wicks. See the green candle in the back with a green wick? I stuck that wick in a little too soon and it immediately sunk into the candle. It should take about 10 minutes or so for the wax to solidify. When the wax is strong enough to hold your wick upright, then insert all your wicks. When the candles are fully set, trim the wicks.

We intended to use these as emergency candles, so we packaged them up in Mason jars and added a box of matches. We made labels with quotes about light and attached them to the jars. We did remove the cupcake liner from our candles before we packaged them up.

The jar lid makes a great stand to burn the candles on.

Edited to include this important information:

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THESE CANDLES: WE MADE THEM, LIT ONE AND IT BURNED FINE WHILE WE WERE TAKING PICTURES FOR THIS POST, BUT THE TRUTH IS WE FELL PREY TO THIS IDEA VIA THE INTERNET AND DIDN'T FULLY TEST THE CANDLE AND LET IT BURN ALL THE WAY DOWN. WE RECEIVED COMMENTS THAT SUGGESTED CRAYON CANDLES JUST DON'T WORK. SO, WE PUT ONE OF OUR CANDLES TO THE TEST. THE CANDLES BURNED FINE FOR ABOUT 3 MINUTES, THEN THE FLAME DIMINISHED TO ALMOST NOTHING - MAKING IT NOT A GOOD CANDLE. EVIDENTLY, THE PIGMENTS IN THE CRAYONS CLOG THE WICK AND DO NOT ALLOW THE WAX TO FLOW UP THE WICK. WE ARE DISAPPOINTED AND SORRY IF YOU MADE THESE CANDLES WITH CRAYONS. WE STILL LOVE THE IDEA AND THE PACKAGING, BUT SUGGEST YOU CHOP UP OLD CANDLES OR USE CANDLE WAX FOUND AT THE HOBBY STORE IN THE CANDLE MAKING SECTION.

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