From trash to trolls

Eleanor Douglas-Meyers is a crafty mom from Uitenhage who writes about DIY, parenting, natural hair care, fashion, food and fun on her blog:

My mom and late godmother, although very different, had a few things in common, the most obvious one being their belief in “waste not want not”.

I’ve been DIY-ing most of my life because they instilled this belief in me that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

This is probably why I’m always keeping things “just in case”. It annoys my husband who can’t for the life of him understand why I need a box (or three) of bits and pieces and why I can’t throw away scrap material. As annoying and “Hoarder SA” edition as it can be, it is also helpful. Like this year when I made my son’s party favours out of my “just in case” box.

I made troll hair (or upside down hearts really) crayons for his  Trolls party using all the broken crayons I have been collecting over the years.

You can make any shape really; it just depends on your mould. What you need:

• You need a pot (not one of your husband's prized ones - they get all snooty if you do that)
• A bunch of crayons from around the house (you have crayon or ten around the house, you know you do)
• A mould - like for chocolate's or ice ( I went with hearts because I feel like it works as Troll hair and Aidan's party theme was Trolls)
• Scissors or a knife if you need help breaking the crayons

• Break crayons and separate by colour.
• Toss crayons in a pot and turn on the heat. I thought I could melt the crayons in the microwave but my goodness, does it take ever so long – the stove way is so much easier.
• Ladle the hot mixture in to the moulds, this can get messy and dangerous, so I would not recommend this step for kids. Then just leave it to set and pop them out. It is honestly that easy... Happy recycling!