I love my son. No questions. But plain and simple, doing crafty stuff is more of a girls thing. I love that S is really into art and making crafty stuff but trying to find boy crafts is not the easiest.
When I display or sell at fairs and my son is with me that weekend he tags along. Willingly! I embrace this time with my son and use it as a teaching/learning tool. He’s eight and still has a hard time grasping the value of a dollar and that it’s not just a piece of paper in mom’s wallet! I use to be able to give him a penny for picking up his toys or a dime for feeding the dog. That doesn’t fly anymore. So. Now that he’s getting more into crafting and I’m teaching him how to earn a buck or two I use these craft fairs as a way to teach both. Throw in recycled crafts and I’ve just hit 5 targets with one stone: 1. creating 2. earning money 3. counting money 4. socialization with strangers 5. recycling/upcycling/repurposing
Last time I showed you how we use old crayons to make new ones. This week I’m going to show you how to make fire starters. Trust me. This is THE BOMB for repurposing old crayons and wax! These aren’t as fun as the good ol can of lighter fluid (yeah. I might be a bit of a piro myself!) but they’re much safer & better on the environment. Plus they’re cool to make!
Cardboard egg cartons
Old crayons or wax
Dryer lint or wood shavings
Refer to the last post on making a double boiler for melting wax.
Cut the egg cartons into sections of 2.
Fill each section with saw dust or dryer lint. Be generous! (even more than I'm showing below!)
Pour the melted wax on top & let cool. Don't worry about sprinkling sawdust on top. Most of mine fell off anyway.
From here: these can be done! But S and I take it a bit further and use half a sheet of newspaper to wrap each one. This makes them a bit more presentable for our purpose of selling. Plus if you use wood shavings it contains the loose shavings in the newspaper.
TO LIGHT FIRE:
Arrange kindling (minus any newspaper you might normally use) under bigger logs. Put this fire starter in the middle of the kindling, making sure it is easily accessible.
Simply take your lighter and light this up-cycled creation on fire. Grab some marshmallows & enjoy!
This also works for charcoal grills when your charcoal needs a little help. I know. I know. Lighter fluid is more fun but this helps get your kids involved and uses up materials that would otherwise get thrown away.