These easy melted crayon ornaments are pretty and fun to make for Christmas. Make great memories with your family this holiday season creating this fun DIY ornament. They also are a great homemade holiday gift idea!
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One thing that my family and I love to do is make homemade ornaments for our Christmas tree. When the kids were little these would be simple ideas, like a cut out felt ornament for the kids to decorate or salt dough.
These melted crayon ornaments are one of the easiest we have every made, and they are perfect for families of all but the youngest children to make together.
Plus these ornaments use up something most families have in abundance – old and broken crayons. A few months ago my daughter Eleanor saw the melted crayon art all over Pinterest and rounded up all our broken crayons to create a melted crayon canvas for her room.
She had fun, created some pictures and made a huge mess with melted wax all over our deck.
She had so much fun she wanted to keep melting crayons, so melted crayon ornaments seemed like the perfect idea. The ornaments also have an advantage because the melted crayon is contained inside the glass ornaments, so this is much less messy craft than a melted crayon canvas!
The ornaments came out looking very pretty, will be lovely on our Christmas tree and are super simple to make.
Supplies for Melted Crayon Christmas Ornaments
Darice 2610-42 6-Piece Heavy Duty Glass Balls Clear Glass, 70mm
Crayola 24 Count Crayons (6-Pack)
How to Make Melted Crayon Ornaments
First you need a bunch of peeled crayons in many different festive colors. We used leftover bits of crayons that we found scattered around the house.
While traditional colors like red and green make beautiful ornaments don’t be afraid to experiment with non-traditional colors like this pretty combination of blue and green.
Then take off the top of the glass ornament, and put two or three small bits of crayon inside each ball. We found less crayon wax was better, since it doesn’t take much to coat the inside of the ball.
It worked best when we used pieces about 1/2 an inch long. One of my favorite combinations was the orange, yellow and red crayons, which made an ornament that reminds me of a crackling fire.
Then use the pliers to hold the end of the ornament and a hair dryer to melt the wax.
Once the hair dryer heats up it starts to melt the crayon bit so they flow inside the ornament. As the crayon wax melts turn the ball so that the colors run together and coat the inside of the ornament in swirling patterns.
Once you are satisfied with the design simply wait for the ornament to cool and put the top back in the ornament.
Tips for Making the Melted Crayon Ornaments
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- As we made our ornaments we learned that it is easier if you have two people for this craft, one to hold the hair dryer and one to hold the ornament tightly. You can do it by yourself but it is more difficult to control and you are liable to drop an ornament or two accidentally.
- We found that some crayons melted faster than others, so it took some experimentation to get the best results. I would expect that all one brand of crayons would melt at similar rates, but since our crayons are broken pieces with few labels stored in an old shoebox I wasn’t able to test this out!
Darice 2610-42 6-Piece Heavy Duty Glass Balls Clear Glass, 70mmCrayola 24 Count Crayons (6-Pack)
- Not all the crayons melted all the way, but we just left the little bits of crayon that were left inside the ornaments and they hardened with the rest of the crayon wax.
- Most of the ornaments ended up with one overriding color with some swirly highlights. It is also good to leave a little bit of the clear glass showing, because then the lights of the Christmas tree shine through and make them sparkle.
Fun for All Ages
Fun for All AgesWe found the most of the melted crayon ornaments didn’t turn out the way we expected when we started, but all of them looked lovely, and they were lots of fun to make. I think you’d have to really work to make a bad looking ornament using this process.
Everyone in the family got involved in the process and started making ornaments. My mom is in her 80s and she used to make intricate beaded satin ornaments.
But now she has bad arthritis in her hands and can’t do any of the crafting she used to love. But these ornaments she had no problem creating!
We had so much fun making these that we made far too many for our Christmas tree. But that worked out fine, because they also make excellent holiday presents for your friends and family.
So if you are looking for an entertaining family craft this holiday season make memories this holiday season with some melted crayon ornaments!
Hi Anne! What a wonderful idea. Your ornaments are beautiful! I do have a question though. You used glass ornaments. Would it still work with plastic ornaments?