Homemade Crayons

Bunny recently discovered coloring, thanks to an easel given to her as a Christmas gift by one of my sisters.  Mostly, she likes to watch me color her favorite Sesame Street characters, but she has also started scratching a crayon or two across the paper herself.  But I'm still concerned because the crayons--even the chunky ones--still make their way into her mouth.  What's worse, is that they break and then make their way into her mouth in nice, choke-able, pieces.

So I googled it and found instructions for making crayons.  Not that instructions would have been necessary, but it was nice to know that I wasn't going to set my kitchen on fire trying to make toddler friendly crayons.  I found some crayons in our basement--both Crayola and some cheaper crayons and we sorted them into a cupcake pan using cupcake papers as molds.

Then, I put them in the oven at 275 degrees.

I don't remember how long the instructions said to put the crayons in for--maybe 20 minutes--but it took much longer.  Nearly an hour if I remember correctly.

Once the crayons were melted--completely melted, I took some toothpicks and stirred the crayons up a bit to make sure the colors were even.

 Then, I let them harden for at least 24 hours before removing them from the molds, and gave them to my daughter--who called them "chocolate" because they resemble Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (which she'd only just tried the day before).

My one complaint about the crayons is that the color seeped to the bottom and colorless wax settled on top so only one side of the crayon colors really well.  My theory is that perhaps this wouldn't have happened if I would have used only high quality crayons.  Who knows.  In any case, Bunny loves them and they seem to be a good size and shape for her little hands.  And they haven't broken into choke-able pieces which is, really, my one concern.

Handmade Presents: Earrings and Christmas Card Gift boxes

A very easy present to make if you have the right tools, is jewelry.  With a couple of needle nosed pliers and cutters especially sized for jewelry plus some beads, hooks, and wires, you can easily make a very nice looking pair of earrings!  I dabble in amateur jewelry along with sewing, knitting, and other crafting, so I have a lot of jewelry making supplies.  Since jewelry is easy to make, I decided I'd make some for aunts, cousins, and my step-mother-in-law

And because I didn't want to spend money on boxes, I made my own boxes out of old Christmas cards (which you can make yourself if you follow this link).

 Mostly, I just made the earrings based on the colors I had and then decided which relative would like that set, but for my sister-in-law...

...I made special Steelers colored earrings because she's obsessed.  It was hard for me to do since I'm an Eagles fan, but love breaks through football boundaries.