St. Pete company reimagines creativity with custom crayons, sidewalk chalk

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Sunshine City Colors all started with the owner looking for a better way to communicate with her niece and nephew across the country during the pandemic. 

"This was a way to send her a set of crayons and for us to be able to play through video chat," Sunshine City Colors Owner Samantha Lane said. "From there, we just kind of decided to share this with other people."

The St. Petersburg business is a custom crayon and sidewalk chalk company. 

"We try to re-imagine some our childhood favorite things," said Lane. 

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Their crayons are made from recycled Crayola crayons. They collect them, remove the paper and sort them by color.

The crayons are then either melted down to make solid color crayons or baked to create mixed color crayons. Crayon shapes include everything from musical instruments and letters of the alphabet to mini-Lego figures and donuts. 

Their small batch of sidewalk chalk is made with non-toxic, child-safe ingredients. 

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"It’s much more dense than commercial sidewalk chalk, so it will last a whole lot longer," said Lane. 

You can shop Sunshine City Colors online. 

If you’d like to donate old Crayola crayons, Lane has collection points at Practically Pikasso and Baked in the Burg in St. Petersburg, and Sail Market in Gulfport.