Whether you are celebrating the actual Olympic Games or hosting an Olympic-themed party of some sort, we all know that favors add that extra something special to any event. And when kids are involved, the best favors are either edible or arts and crafts related.
Ever since I picked up this heap of Crayola Crayons on mega-markdown, I have been brainstorming ideas for projects. Believe it or not, I have never melted down old crayons into fun shapes – though I have always wanted to try it. So the upcoming Summer Games motivated me to create a craft that I have not seen anywhere else.
The Idea: Create crayons in the shape and colors of the iconic Olympics Rings
I kept kicking this idea around and had such a hard time figuring out how to achieve the ring shape without a ton of effort. I didn’t want to be slicing, trimming or otherwise altering dozens of crayons to make them look like symmetrical rings. After a little searching, I found this Wilton Mini Doughnut Baking Pan. It turned out to be the PERFECT size!
First things first – you will need five specific colors to replicate the Olympic Rings: blue, green, yellow, red and black. You can definitely mix different like-hues of those colors together. Each space in this pan holds about 2 crayons, broken up into small pieces. I used these color combos to make some of my rings:
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F and spray your baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Break up your crayons and fill the molds with like-colors. Again, you can fit about two broken crayons in each spot.
Place tray in oven for 10-13 minutes.
After about 12 minutes, I used a toothpick and swirled around the wax to make sure it had completely melted.
Now with my first batch, I learned the hard way NOT to put the tray directly in the freezer, despite reading the opposite on various crayon-melting-tutorials. When I did this, ALL of my crayons came out with big ‘ol cracks everywhere. No good!
For the 2nd batch, I simply pulled the tray out of the oven and let it sit on the counter for approximately 15-20 minutes. Then I popped the tray in the refrigerator for another 15 minutes or so.
This time, the crayons came out perfect.
So of course you know I couldn’t stop there. I took my crayons and slid them into a clear plastic candy bag – folding the open end over and sealing it with a piece of Scotch tape. Then I whipped up this Olympics themed party favor label and stuck it on top. (<– Download a free copy of the label to use for your own favors!)
