100th Post Party and a Messy Monday craft

It's time to celebrate!!

I have loved doing this blog over the last year and can't believe this is my 100th post. Like I said on Friday, change is in the air. So, grab a seat, a plate full of goodies and take some time to look around. The biggest change is that I have decided to do a post for each day of the week. Just look on my sidebar to see what they are. I'm so excited! I hope that all of you will want to join me on my new adventures in blogland. :)

I'm also changing things at my store. I have been working on some new items that I am super excited about and I hope to have them posted by Wednesday. The biggest change over there is that I have decided to phase out the hooded bath towels. They are super cute and I love them, but they are pretty time consuming for me and my sewing machine is starting to hate me for making it sew through towels so many towels. I will offer them in my store until June 1. I will make the orders as they come in and ship them out as quickly as I can. Then my trusty friend will be sent to a sewing machine day spa where she will get cleaned, adjusted, and oiled. When she comes back, she will be happy and so will I. The moral of this story is that if you want a hooded bath towel, you should order it now.

Now that all of the business is out of the way, let's get to the good stuff!! In honor of my very first Messy Monday, I decided to make star crayons with my preschoolers. How many of you have more broken bits of crayons than whole crayons? We have a ton and they drive me crazy. What better way to reuse them than to melt them down and make new crayons?!

Crayon Shapes

Materials:

• Crayons--broken into pieces with all paper removed. If you don't have broken crayon pieces, you can buy a pack of crayons at the dollar store.
• Silicone baking cups--I like silicone because the crayon just pops right out when it is cool and it doesn't stain the silicone or leave any sort of residue. I'm sure you can use regular muffin tins, but I have never tried it.
• An oven--preheated to 200 F.

 1. Remove paper from all crayons. Make sure all crayons are broken into semi-small pieces. The smaller the pieces the more it will blend together. The bigger the pieces the more variation you will see.

2. Sort them according to color. Put crayon pieces in the silicone baking cups. I like the star because it has 5 different points. The kids can hold on to them easily and have a nice point to color with.

3. Bake them at 200 F for 20-25 minutes. You want them to be completely melted. If you are using a silicone baking cups, you will want to put it on a baking sheet so you can easily put it in and pull it out of the oven. If you are using jumbo crayons with or instead of regular crayons, it will take longer for them to melt--closer to 35 minutes. Just keep an eye on them.

4. Remove them from the oven. Be VERY careful. This is melted wax and it can burn you! Wait for the wax to cool completely before removing it from the silicone tray. The silicone cups are super easy. Just turn it over and pop them out.

These can be used as party favors at a kids birthday party or for stocking stuffers. Take them with you to church and tell your kids that they can only use the star crayons if they are super quiet. (works like a charm!)

Have fun coloring with your kids!!

P.S. No party is complete without presents, so leave a comment and I'll pick someone to send a little package of Pumpkin Patch love.

I'm linking this up to Talk about it Tuesday and Take a look Tuesday.  Click the buttons to find them.