Saturday, April 25, 2009

Magnets and crayon rocks

Hmm, these two topics aren't related in any way except I just happened to do both these things yesterday. One successfully, one not so much.....




I saw this cute idea for coin magnets in the latest Better Homes & Gardens magazine so made some straight away. So easy and I have been wondering what to do with the bits of foreign currency we have lying around the house. I used very strong magnets that I picked up at a hardware store and some of the coins were attracted to the magnets so I didn't glue those ones. I would suggest using a very strong glue for these. It makes for a fun reminder of your travels! Could be a cute idea for my homemade Christmas present idea list too. Of course, now I have lots of ideas for other things to stick to my magnets....let me know yours!



I have been coveting these crayon rocks (for the kids of course) for awhile now. I just love them. Love their shape and how they make me want to grab them and draw. Sooooo, being the somewhat crafty person that I am, I think to myself 'well, I could probably make those'. You know, just melt some crayons, wait until they have cooled off a bit and mold them with my hands into pebbly type shapes. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, it sounded easy in my mind when I first thought about it but in reality, the melting in your muffin tin is easy but waiting for them to cool off to the right temperature and consistency is extremely tricky. Then there is the molding part. Not so easy either I found out! A lot of normal, sane people are saying 'well, d'uh' right about now but I am hard to put off when I get an idea in my head. Anyway, here is my one lonely successfully molded attempt. Too lumpy for me and waaaaaay too much effort (again I can hear the 'well, d'uh' comments!). I think I will admit defeat and just buy the darn things....



p.s. Yes, I did notice that it is rather unfortunate that the surviving crayon happens to be THAT colour and the final result looks somewhat like something left in the backyard......lol (c'mon kids, it IS a crayon, really....).

4 comments:

  1. I do the same "I could probably just make it myself" thing. And I think you could make your own crayon rocks. You'd just need to make a mold first. But once you bought the stuff to do a silicone mold you could have bought the crayons+. But with a mold you could make as many as you wanted. If you're like me though once the novelty of the thing wears off it's gone. Good luck!

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  2. I noticed you like IKEA and want crayon rocks. Ever see those silicon ice trays at IKEA? I think you get them in a set? Anyway, take crayons and break them up into the molds and melt slowly in the oven making sure to remove before you melt your ice tray. They may not be rocks, but we have made little flower and star crayons. So cute!

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  3. Mandy, put your ice tray in the microwave instead. They have a better survival rate there!

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  4. Make your own mold using a silicon mold kit. I suggest the siliconplastique. you can buy it here http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/ but you have to buy a whole pound. make a mold of real rocks or make clay rocks the shape you want. of course, you only save money if you make quite a few crayons. (when you work with this silicon you can make the opening a bit smaller than the cavity, but go easy.)

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