Crazy Crayon Easter Eggs

I was shopping for Easter for my four year old and looking through the usual selection of overpriced egg decorating kits. One particular one stood out to me as looking unusual and fun but I definitely didn't want to pay nearly $6 for what appeared to be a cheap plastic pencil sharpener and 4 crayons. The idea is to decorate eggs with crayon shavings while still hot, the principle being, the shavings melt and you have a fun, funky decorated egg.

So I went home and improvised my own methods. Using a Crayola crayon sharpener that came with a crayon tower I bought recently I used old and broken crayons that we have been saving over the last year or two for use in a crayon maker we have. Any crayons will work but ideally you can use scraps and save your whole crayons for coloring. I made up five different color combinations. I had a cardboard egg crate that came with my last purchase of eggs.

Here's the set up with our crayon shavings, cardboard egg crate, tongs for handling hot eggs, and trivet for hot pan. The eggs have to be hot when you start or the crayons won't melt. Boil the eggs by any method you prefer. Leave the eggs in the hot water and carry the pan to the table, preferably with a lid to keep the heat in. Using tongs remove 2-3 eggs at a time. I found that if you lay the eggs on their side you get better melting patterns (see pictures below). Sprinkle the tops of the eggs with crayon shavings.

As you can see, even fairly young children can join in on the fun. A little extra caution is required, since obviously there is a pot of hot water nearby and the eggs are still VERY hot! Once you have the desired melt pattern and crayon is at least minimally set (about 10 minutes), using tongs carefully dip the eggs into a bowl of ice water or under cold running water in the sink. You can leave the eggs in ice water to disperse remaining heat and then put them in an egg carton in the refrigerator.

Anyway, here's what a finished product looks like. The closeup is one I used metallic crayon shavings for. It gave a really interesting effect.

The backs of the eggs also come out pretty cool too!

Have fun and Happy Easter!