Summer Books and Crayons.

It's been a while since I last blogged; sorry, folks! That's not to say that there haven't been many lovely things going on - there really have - I just haven't been able to find the time to sit down and tell you all about them. Well, here I am, with an update on today's loveliness....


This week was our last day of Little Me* for the summer and I wanted to give all the kiddos something to keep them crafting over the summer. So, I've been collecting broken crayons (thanks to all who donated, too!) and finally got around to turning them into something much more lovely.

(* Little Me is a toddler group I run with a couple of friends at our church, Hay Hill - check the website www.hayhill.org for more info. We're open to pre-school age children every Monday  during term-time from 10am to 1130am. Let me know if you fancy coming along!)

First, place your broken - or chopped up - crayons into a silicone mould. I found that you need to put in more bits than you think necessary, otherwise the crayons get a little thin.

Place in a cool oven - 150C until melted. 


A slight warning: When I first did this, I followed instructions from a US-based blog. I'm sorry, I don't remember who it was, if I do, I'll be sure to edit this to acknowledge you. The instructions said to bake in a 250 oven. As a Brit, I took this to be a celsius temperature, and I wondered why the kitchen filled with smoke and yukky smells - turns out the wax was burning! Oops! Not so lovely!


Leave to cool and then turn out of the mould. They look so fabulous, even if I do say so myself!

At the end of every session at Little Me we sing a few songs and finish up with a little blessing. It's lovely to see the children doing all the actions. Of course, it seemed only right that the backing cards for the crayons should have the blessing on them too.

I'm not sure that the glue dots are going to hold the crayons in place, but hey, it's worth a try.

I've packaged the crayons together with a Summer Book that I made by stitching three sheets of plain paper and coloured cover together.

Charlotte, my eldest daughter, absolutely loves making books - she writes and illustrates them herself - and usually puts a few staples up the side. One day, whilst I had the sewing machine out, I ran up a little book and, well, I wonder why I didn't think about it before. It's so much neater and nicer-looking. I suppose it could blunt the needle if you do a lot (as I did over the weekend), so you might like to change the needle if you're then planning to sew up a little silk number.

All in all, a lovely little gift for end of term...

More loveliness in due course, I promise!