Recycle Oil Pastels & Crayons

Hey there! Do you have a bunch of broken oil pastels or crayons lying around? Don’t toss them just yet. You can totally give them a second life. How about we melt those little color bits down and reshape them into something super cool? Pick a shape that tickles your fancy, and let’s mix up those colors for a funky twist. It’s like a mini art project with a side of recycling. Let’s get crafting!

My kids love to doodle with oil pastels and crayons. Though they are not a gifted artist, I love all the scribbles and drawings they have created. Looking at them fighting over the same piece of oil pastel gave me the idea to make some multicolored star-shaped pastels, so they can just pick a star and doodle with many colors. Please read further for the tutorial on how to recycle crayons or recycle oil pastels into multicolored star-shaped pastels.

As I cut and fill the pastels into the mold, it creates lots of waste debris on my table, which is very small and can hardly be picked up by hand. So, I collect them and pour them into one of the molds. Surprisingly, it turns into stardust with all the colors I have used. One glide at the tip will give stripes of colors, my daughter shouted out: “Mommy, it is like a rainbow! So beautiful!”

Kids will be kids, and they just like to fight over the same thing. When I made the star recycle oil pastels, I kept in mind that 2 stars must be at least close to identical in color and shape. Even with all my hard work trying to duplicate the twin-star pastel, they still fight. Sigh. “Mom, I want that piece she is using, it has more red in it”, “Mom, not fair, my star is smaller…”, “Mom, sister used my star…”, “Mom…..” …… What can I say? I just love my kids the way they are. Sometimes, they even make me steaming mad with all the mess and fights around. If you have kids like mine, welcome to my MOTHERHOOD….

Get the tutorial on how to recycle oil pastels to make the Colorful Star Pastel after this.

Click the link if you would like to do more recycle crafts or upcycle crafts.

Recycle Oil Pastels Or Crayons Into Colorful Stars

Materials & Tools:
1. Broken Oil Pastels or Crayons [Non-Toxic]
2. Star TPE or Silicon Rubber Ice Mold
3. Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline) or mineral oil or butter
4. Cotton Swab (Q-tips)
5. Craft Knife
6. Tweezers
7. Oven

Note: 100% oil pastel is soft and fragile, so the star might break during the process of pushing it out from the mold.

A 70%/30% mixture of oil pastel and crayon produces a stronger bond. The success rate is higher with a mixture of crayons. The higher the percentage of crayon, the higher the success rate in remolding.
When Crayon melts, the color pigments will set to the bottom while the wax float to the top. The color pigment at the bottom resembles the texture of oil pastel.

Get ready all the materials and tools. I stole my son’s oil pastels and crayons where he has stripped them to naked, that’s why you can see that they are all coated with all sorts of colors.

Wipe a thin layer of petroleum jelly on the star mold with a cotton swab. Pay particular attention to all the tips of the star.
You can skip this step if using 100% crayons, but no harm lubricate the mold since it will make the stars come out easily.

Cut and chop the oil pastels and crayons into smaller pieces.
Place bigger chunks of crayons into the mold first, especially the tips of the star. Fill the gaps with smaller pieces and remaining debris.
It can be one color for each tip or a random mix.

To get the shades of tones for your star pastel, you can premix some color shades before putting them into the mold.

Press the oil pastels and crayons down and fill the mold slightly higher.

Place the mold into a cold oven and heat it up to 100°C / 212°F for 10 minutes.
Keep an eye on the oil pastels and crayons while they are melting. You will be surprised at how fast they start to melt.
Don’t increase the heat to melt the oil pastel faster; it is dangerous, as you might cause toxic fumes to release.

The oil pastels and crayons start to melt and sunken into the mold to fill all the gaps in between.
You can add some pastels to fill in for the height.

After they are fully melted, they form a shiny molten.
A layer of transparent wax will float to the top if crayons were added into it.
Keep the mold in the oven with the door open for about 10 minutes to let the bubbles released from the molten. Poke bubbles when they surface to the top.

Let them harden by either transfer the warm mold into the freezer or leave it at room temperature to set for about 2 hours or overnight. A 100% oil pastels harden quite fast.
Gently separate the sides of the star by pulling the mold away. Push the star out from the mold.

Some of the perfect star-shaped recycle crayons oil pastels successfully molded.

Sometimes it is not easy to remold a 100% oil pastels, it is soft and fragile, breakage can happen especially on the thin tip of the star.

But if some crayons (at least 30%) are added to the oil pastels, it will improve the success rate in no time.
The wax will float to the top (the thin opaque layer) that enhances the bond, while the color pigment sinks to the bottom.

Enjoy doodling and scribbling with the star-shaped recycled oil pastels!