Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Soap Crayons

Everyone's heard about making your own recycled crayons or sidewalk chalk but equally fun is making your own soap crayons. You know, the kind you can use for fun art projects either in the tub or on the sidewalk then rinse away?

It's an easy recipe, the only caution is that you want to make sure you don't have white grout in your tub that can be stained by the food coloring (though usually a good product like Soft Scrub can remove any residuals the food coloring might leave behind).

Here's the recipe:

1 cup powdered laundry soap
30-40 drops of food color
water

Mix the dry laundry soap with food coloring then add enough water to turn the powder into a very thick liquid. Pack the mixture into ice cube trays then set the trays out in a sunny place for two days to dry.

Once they're dry just pop them out and they're ready for drawing. Great for bathtime fun!

Sponsored by Pak Naks--decorate your stuff!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michelle, pardon my ignorance, but how do you turn the soap leftovers into powder?

chelle said...

So going to try this. When we moved in there was an old box of ABC laundry soap from the previous owner!

Anonymous said...

Man you are smart. I've heard of making bubbles out of laundry detergent but not chalk! I'll have to try it.

Carrie said...

Ooh, love this idea- my son would love it, too! :)

Inkling said...

Wouldn't laundry soap be too toxic or irritating to skin to use like that? I mean, I know we use it to clean clothes which we then wear on our skin, but it seems pretty harsh to use on skin directly, which is what would happen with a little one putting his chubby hands around it in the tub. Just wondering. It's too early for me to do something like this anyway, because my guy would eat the crayons no matter what they were made from. =)

Beth Cotell said...

Sounds like a wonderful project. I'll have to try this with the kids!

Heather said...

This sounds very cool! Plus I have some of those ice cube trays that make the long skinny ice tubes to put in water bottles...I bet those would make great crayons.

Anonymous said...

Man you are smart. I've heard of making bubbles out of laundry detergent but not chalk! I'll have to try it.

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Anonymous said...

I'm such an idiot. By laundry soap you meant the powder detergent we use to do our laundry. I got a little lost in translation so ignore my first question.

Farmer*swife a/k/a Glass_Half_Full said...

Cute craft!

Lori said...

Genius, and we can use shaped trays like hearts or stars. In fact, I think I have a fish one. I can't wait to give this a try!

daysease said...

ooh, this is a perfect craft project for those of us who do not have easy access to sidewalk chalk. a substitute of sorts. thank you so much!!! looking forward to trying this one!! :-)

Janet said...

I love this idea.

Scribbit said...

Sorry to be slow answering here--I've been in and out of town this week.

I think it should be okay, the amount they get on their skin is pretty minimal really. You wash it off after they're out so not that much gets in the water if you use it in the tub anyway. Then of course outside it's not an issue either.

Though it's good to be aware of that kind of thing.

patty said...

i will try this soap crayons