Color Me Happy

It has been a LONG while, crafty friends, and I can't apologize enough.  Life just gets in the way. But just because I took this long hiatus from posting my crafts doesn't mean I took a hiatus from crafting...oh no no no...the crafting was still happening in the background. I just didn't have the time to share.
But here I am, quarantined at home, being treated for strep and what better time to catch up on some crafty posts?!

My latest craft was something that I had pinned on Pinterest a couple of years ago and had every intention of doing for the boys' kindergarten Valentine's Day party.  However, I completely forgot about it and had to wait a WHOLE year before we could bring it back into the fold.

Thankfully (or not so thankfully, depending on how you look at it), the Mid-Atlantic had a major winter storm in mid-January that trapped us in the house for 10+ days. And even though I was working that whole time, I also wanted to take advantage of the time the boys were at home to make our homemade Valentines.

Here was the inspiration:

Crayon Heart Valentines

I wanted to break up/chop up a bunch of different colored crayons, melt them down and mold them into multi-colored hearts.  So genius and so cute!

This is actually a VERY simple project which is good when you are dealing with two different classes with a total of 50+ kids.

Here are the materials you'll need:

• a mega box of crayons (a medium sized box - the 80-something box, might be good for just one class)
• heart shaped mold (I bought the Wilton 2105-4909 Easy Flex Heart 24-Cavity Silicone Mold off Amazon)
• glue gun
• V-Day card printables (I used the free printable found here.)

I primarily used the reds, pinks, purples, oranges, greens, yellows, blues...and basically avoided the browns and blacks.  How did the kids get involved?  They were a big help in getting the wrappers off the crayons - little hands can do amazing things! Although this was possibly the most time consuming part, we sat around in a circle, unwrapping crayons, listening to Kidz Bopz (whatever works). 
After they unwrapped all the crayons, they were able to start breaking them into little pieces.  They didn't quite understand how little I needed to get them (small enough to fit into the mold) so I let them go crazy breaking as many crayons as they could and then went in afterwards and broke them up even smaller.  No knife or cutting board needed.

From here on out, it's smooth sailing!  Preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Fill up the silicone mold with bits and pieces of colorful crayons.  Place in the oven for 15 minutes and voila - it's all melted down. (Tip: I would bake with the mold on a baking sheet for easier handling in and out of the oven.) Take the mold out of the oven and let sit for about 20 minutes. When it first comes out of the oven, it's all liquid wax.  As it cools, it molds into a colorful heart. After the wax cools and hardens, pop the hearts out of each mold and let sit for a few more minutes.

I went to my local FedEx/Kinko's (is Kinko's even part of the name anymore?!) to print out the cards on cardstock.  This was the most expensive part of the project because I picked out nice cardstock and, again, I had to double up on everything.  After cutting out the printables, I took a Sharpie pen and wrote To: and From: on the bottom so the boys knew where to address their classmates and where to sign their names.

52 Valentines later, I carefully glue gunned all the heart crayons to the center of each card.

They turned out wonderfully and I was glad to know that the boys were able to give a unique Valentine to their classmates.




Happy Valentine's Day 2016!