Project: Recycled Crayons

I have seen a lot of people making recycled crayons lately and since I live in a household with two small children we have broken crayons everywhere. I had read this tutorial about it here a few months ago and bought a package of star cake tins and so late tonight I randomly decided that it would be a fun quick project.

Here they are waiting to go into the oven. Did I mention that my husband was on the computer and I couldn't go and check the directions, oh well, I can remember something I read briefly a couple of months ago, right? So I preheat the oven to 250 (note that the tutorial says 150, I was only 100 degrees off) and pop them in. After waiting a few minutes to make sure they weren't going to burst into flames or something I wandered off to watch TV. About 10 minutes later I went to check on them and I had crayon soup, not the variegated crayons I had expected. A little defeated I take a shower while I wait for them to cool. The backs are a solid color and not looking very exciting. After they cooled I pulled them out of the tins, the front side looks cool and the good thing is the only way you can really screw this up is if they do burst into flames in you oven.

I know that they will be enjoyed by my kids, they are big and easy to handle, and have no idea what they were supposed to look like. I will definitely make these again (I do have a coffee tin full of broken crayons and my mother still has a container full from when I was a kid) and bake them at a lower temperature and see if they look more like I expected. I think they would be a popular item at a craft show and they would make great gifts or favors.

Project: Recycled Crayons Round 2

After a trip to the Dollar Tree for some supplies I decided to revisit the recycled crayon project. I bought two muffin tins and some heart and star shaped baking cups and did a little more research and this is what I've found out...150 is what most people recommend (even Martha Stewart) setting the oven on and that is should take approximately 20-30 minutes for them to melt and this is what I tried. My ovens lowest temperature is 170, but I was not worried about this, after all I know that I can cook them at at least 250 and they won't burst into flames. It did take longer than 30 minutes, but I was opening the oven every five minutes to peek and take pictures.Here they are in the oven, this is after about 35 minutes, getting runny, but still lumpy on the back. You might notice that the ones on the left are in coordinating colors and the ones on the right are just random colors thrown together, they both turned out great. Fresh from the oven and cooling on the stove.Here is the back of the mixed crayons, not that pretty, but the other side looks great.Here are the finished crayons, aren't they pretty? Here's a better detail of the shapes and by the way the crayons in the cupcake tins melted faster.And here are the ones from the muffin tins, the color variations are really noticeable.

Some alternative instructions I found said to preheat the oven to 350 and when you put the crayons in turn the oven off and leave them for about 15-20 minutes, I may try this next time. It has also been mentioned that using silicone bake ware makes it easier to remove the finished crayons and there are also a bigger variety of shapes available. I put mine in the freezer for a few minutes and they popped right out. I also wanted to mention that I chopped these up with a knife into pea sized pieces, the last time I made the chunks smaller and this is not necessary. This is a really fun and inexpensive project (I only spent $5.00 for the tins) I would definitely recommend trying it!

Craft Show Display

Last Saturday was the perfect day for a craft show, it was cold, but the sun was shining and there was no snow or ice to make driving difficult.  I had a lovely spot near the door and the sun streamed in from a window above and behind my table, which was really nice, however it made my pictures come out awful!

On the left I had my wristlets and record bowls holding bottle cap pendants and recycled notebooks, in the center my pendants and tree of life ornaments and next to that hats and scarves.  The box on the right contains recycled crayons and knitted washcloths.

I have my frame propped up with a brick to make the pendants easier to view and it leaves space behind and under the frame to store my cash box and bags.

Here are my home made hat stands, they really work well for displaying hats and then I just lay the extra hats along the sides and scarves around the bases.

This was my last show of the season and it was not really my day for sales, but it is a show hosted by my family and I really enjoy spending the day with them.  Next year will be the 20th anniversary of this show and I will be in attendance again, it was a great day full of family and fun and the only show that my kids get to go with me.

I will be using my pendant frame and head displays again, I think they worked out really well and really the only investment was the time it took to make them.  The record bowls are also really handy for displaying smaller groups of items and they are also available for sale.  I had a really fun season and next year I am hoping to attend more events.

MIA

I know that I have been missing in action for about a month, the Halloween instant cemetery rush has been insane!!!, but in a good way :). I have been making a few other things, but it's stuff I have already shared on this blog, like recycled crayons and polymer clay ornaments.

I have been working on some new things for my etsy store that I will share soon, but today for a little "me" crafty time I have been making stamps from corks. I saw TracyU's journals on flickr and was inspired to make some personal stamps to use for a visual journal of my own.

The restaurant where I work is closing its doors next week and there is this huge box of corks behind the bar, so I took a few (think 95). These are all synthetic corks, they're kind of like spongy rubber and give a crisper image than regular corks. I was hoping to use my linoleum cutter for the carving, but it did not work well, I got better results just using an exacto knife. The best part is if you mess up just cut it off and start over.So far I have made a cupcake, a candle, two different hearts, two different clouds, a sun, and a moon. I used both ends so I have only used four corks! It took me about an hour to carve eight. I'm hoping to make at least one alphabet. I think that using acrylic paint will work well with these stamps and give me more color options, currently I only have a black stamp pad. I will also embellish some the images with gel pens or glitter for more detail.

I have made stamps using erasers, styrofoam meat trays, those pink easy cut blocks, and fun foam stuck to wood or acrylic blocks. I love making my own stamps!

Craft Show Displays

Last year was my first real experience attending craft shows and basically I just showed up, slapped a piece of fabric on the table and arranged everything flat on the table. Not really that impressive and not the best way to showcase my work. This year I vowed to do better, but I don’t have the budget to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy displays and lets be realistic, handmade crafts deserve to be displayed in a unique way, not like a display at Wal-mart.

I had my set of five “heads” to model my hats, the varying heights really added some interest to my table. I also had several knitted scarves for sale and I wrapped them around the necks of my hat models.

I found this beautiful frame at a thrift store for $1.50 and knew it would be the perfect base for my pendant display. I cut a piece of foam core to the size of the hole and using hot glue covered it with a charcoal gray knit fabric from my stash. I inserted it into the frame and used pins to stick my pendants to it.

I did have to remove the cords from some of the pendants, but I really like the way this looks. I used a brick under the back edge to prop it up and that made the perfect hiding spot to keep my cash box and shopping bags. I also printed out signs that would be helpful for customers to shy to ask or if I was busy with someone else, stating prices and that each pendant came with a satin necklace. I also had a sign mentioning that I take custom orders.

I found this great cardboard organizer on clearance at Ben Franklin’s and just had to have it, once I got it home I realized it would be perfect to display my rainbow crayons and knitted washcloths.

It was great for the washcloths, but the crayons seemed to go unnoticed by a lot of my customers, I may need to come up with another way to display them.

I also sell record bowls and I use them to hold some of my smaller items, like bottle cap charms and recycled notebooks.

Overall I really think that my new displays really made my work appear more professional, I still need to come up a good way to display my tree of life ornaments, but I had no problem selling them this time. I was making them to pass the time and to have something to keep me busy and usually shortly after I finished one it would be sold.

I don’t have a picture of my full display, it seems in the excitement of going to the show I left my camera at home. I have one more show this season and hopefully I will remember my camera next time and if anyone knows a great way to showcase my tree of life ornaments let me know!