Thrifty mothers with an eye for a bargain have once again turned to Kmart for a quirky way to create a crafty gift.
The unique ‘hack’ uses an ice-tray, retailed at $1.50, and a box of Crayola crayons – $10 for a pack of 96 – and both are readily available from the discount giant.
By placing small pieces of broken crayon into the silicon moulds, you will have unicorn-shaped crayons after they are baked in an oven for 10 minutes.
Sharing the creation on social media, the mothers have been praised for their one-in-a-kind crayons that will sure make art is more enjoyable at home for the kids.
Colourful crayons like these were made using broken crayons that were placed into silicon molds then baked
Kmart are selling a box of 96 crayons for $10 which would give you an ample supply for the colourful creations – should you need it
The crayons are a simple formula. First pieces are broken up and added to the moulds, then baked in a fan-forced oven set to 100 degrees. The crayons can be popped out from the trays once they are completely cooled.
A couple of creative mothers who have tried out the inexpensive crayon craft-hack have posted their results on the popular Facebook group Kmart Mums Australia.
One woman, Susan shared how her daughters and made the crayons as unique gifts to put in party bags.
Mum-of-two Susan Shepherd revealed she and her daughters made the one crayons as unique gifts for party bags
Kmart’s silicon ice-cube molds come in a range of shapes including unicorn, cactus and pineapple
While the ice cube moulds come in a variety of shapes including pineapple and cactus, Susan used the unicorn mould for her crayon creations and said how easy they were to make.
In response to Susan’s post, many commented how excited they were by the possibility of trying out the crayon-craft hack themselves.
‘I’ve got crayons going back to when my kids where at school and that was years n (sic) years ago. This will be my next project with the grandkids,’ wrote Gail.
Another member of the Facebook group, Heidi also shared her crayon creations.
As well as using the unicorn mould, Heidi branched out and created quirky crayons with the cactus and pineapple shapes.
One mum branched out with crafty creations and made crayons using the entire silicon ice-cube tray range
Her post was also met with an outpouring of enthusiasm, with some going as far as to say how well the $1.50 ice cube trays stood up to being used in a hot oven.
‘The silicone moulds work really well for these. We do it pretty frequently (homeschooling with a toddler means lots of broken crayons) so we re-purpose them too. Need some more ice molds though. Getting sick of all the fish,’ Rebecca wrote.
‘Pretty impressed though for the cheap Kmart silicone ice trays to hold up that well. We do it on 100 degrees too and it only takes about 10 or so minutes per batch.’