I always struggle with ideas for gifts for Theron's teacher. He's a guy and a lot of the ideas I have seen and wanted to make are way too girly. I came across this idea on another blog and thought it would be perfect. It's not girly and Theron could help me make it.
Of course, before starting a project I have to scrummage through my craft supplies to see if there is something I can [re]use first. I found this 2 pack of frames that I had bought on clearance and got stepped on by one of the kids. Oops!

That's o.k. though, I knew there was a reason I couldn't part with those frames even though one was broken. I paid $1.24 for those bad boys. I was too proud to let my cheap find go to waste.

I did buy a new 24 pack of crayons. I figured I could splurge $2 for the project.

There wasn't a tutorial on the blog I got the idea from so I kind of had to figure it out as I went. Which wasn't hard but there might have been easier tools to use. The girl said she used a tool but it made such a mess with little crayon shavings every where that I just used a steak knife. It worked fine and there was minimal mess. Theron and I just guessed and played around with the sizes to form the letter J. It really wasn't hard. Just a little time consuming. I kept wanting to get anal and make the crayons the perfect size but I kept reminding myself..."this is Theron's gift".

I removed the broken glass and paper from the frame so I could see the inside of the back part of the frame. You know the piece that has the stand attached to the back. So basically it's just the frame and the backing chipboard part that has the stand. Does that make sense? The J is actually on the inside of the back piece.
maybe this photo will help

I attached a white piece of card stock and used that as my background of the letter. I couldn't find my low temp hot glue gun so I used the mod podge to attach the crayons to the paper as well. It's holding up great so I'm not worried.

Then I just wrote his name in it. Vinyl or stickers would have been so much better but Theron was so excited to get it done that I just wrote it quick. Theron loved helping with this and glued most of the crayons himself. I think it turned out pretty cute. The J looks a little like a stocking but Theron is sure proud!

Since we're all about [re]cycling and the cut up crayons are too little to color with, we took the left over crayon pieces and removed the paper. We lined a muffin tin with cupcake liners and threw the little crayon pieces in there. We only had enough to fill 2 papers but that's okay. Baked them at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes or until the crayons are liquid and then take them out of the oven to cool. Remove the paper liner and voila!
The perfect way to [re]use tiny crayon pieces

I'm still learning how to write great, clear, understandable, informative tutorials so please let me know if you have any questions.