When thinking about S's valentines this year, I wanted to find something non-candy, and preferably something that we could make together. I found several heart crayon valentines on Pinterest and they sounded perfect (I believe the idea originated here at Chef Messy, but I'm not sure)! Unfortunately for us, S does not have many crayons that are broken/without paper, so I needed to buy some new sets. Because these valentines were going to be for preschoolers, I wanted to make sure the crayons were big and thick - easy for little hands to draw with! This meant A LOT of crayons... We first decided to dump them all out and sort them into color piles. This was a good opportunity to discuss color "shades".
There were definitely too many crayons that needed to be peeled, so I did the majority of that work because it was HARD. Weirdly, certain shades/colors were doused with glue and took forever to peel (mostly the yellows and blues), while others peeled easily with just a tear or two. S had fun helping me break the crayons into pieces (we tried out all sorts of methods - breaking by hand, breaking by stomping with feet, and we even brought out a small hammer and cookie tray for her to practice hammering them to pieces). Again, because of the vastness of the work, I did need to help quite a bit with breaking.
A batch ready for the oven! In all, we needed to make SIX batches to make the valentines for everyone on her list. From what I've read, it's important to use a silicone mold (this certainly made it easy for us to remove the crayons once they'd cooled). I found this one at Michaels.
S had fun stacking the crayons as they came out. Interestingly each one is totally unique.
Another shot of the finished products. They are so beautiful!
The aftermath in our living room...hahaha.
S is just learning how to write, and writing each valentine would be far too much work, so I had her make two on one page and copied them onto cardstock paper with a Xerox. She'd drawn the hearts and colored them in herself once the copied valentines came home.
Of course you can choose whatever shaped silicone mold you want and make crayons for any occasion (or just for yourself for fun!). You'll need to peel and break the crayons to put them in a mold - the more you spread out the colors, the more quickly the finished crayon changes color as you write. We cooked these in our oven at 250 degrees F for 15 minutes. You'll need to do less or more time depending on the thickness of your mold (ours were pretty thick). I am also happy to report that subsequent meals did not taste like crayon, though while these were cooking there was a faint gross smell of melty crayon, so I just ran the oven fan while they were cooking and for about 20 minutes afterwards and that seemed to take care of it.
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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children. As your child's parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family. I always encourage contacting your child's pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies). Observe caution and safety at all times. The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.
I wonder if letting them soak in some water might make those difficult ones easier to peel? I'll have to try it if we ever do a broken crayon project.
ReplyDeleteLauren - That's a great idea! Totally going to try that if/when we do this next!!!
DeleteWe cut the wrappers lengthwise with a razor blade and then just peeled them. Saved us alot of time and frustration :)
ReplyDeleteGreat advice, Tiffany! Hahaha I think we made WAY more work than was necessary for ourselves!
DeleteLet them soak in water for about 10 min, the paper falls off! I just did this!
ReplyDeleteThat would have been much easier, hahaha!!! We'll do that next time!
DeleteI wonder if putting a dab of vanilla extract in the mold or even dip each top (the last crayon to go in the mold) crayon in the vanilla extract would help eliminate that melted crayon smell? U could prob even dab a bit on top of the mold like in between each heart or whatever shape u use....Hmmmm....my apart is smallllll so a smell like that will seep into ea & every room quickly and w it being like 2° out, open windows is not doable now! LOL!!! I can tell if the girl downstairs has her friend over....I can smell the smoke one flight up, and across the hall! : / Anyway, just curious...I'll let u know if I try it, it was supposed to be tonights project, but I realized too late the molds I grabbed at a thrift shop, hearts & stars, say For Use With Water Only...I didn't notice it at the dimmly lit shop, & I wasn't even going to test it...although I did use them the other day to make wax tarts, & they were fine, but then, I didn't put it in the oven, I poured the wax into it & wax cools pretty quickly! :)
ReplyDeleteOooh, I like this idea Marsha! Please let me know if the extract masks the smell!!!
DeleteThis is so adorable! My kids would love doing this!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! We had a blast! :)
DeleteDo you know if off brands melt the same ? It looks like all of yours are crayola, but I'm a kindergarten art teacher with 96 little ones I'd like to do this for so the off brand would definitely be cheaper!
ReplyDeleteOoh, what a good question. I bet there'd be some mild variation in melt time... Just check in on them frequently and I think you'll be fine. Once they're melted - you're done!
DeleteHow did you attach the hearts to the paper? I tried Hot Glue but it just melts the heart. Regular glue sticks to the paper but not the wax. Any suggestions??
ReplyDeleteI did hot glue, but on the low setting. I did a few dots of it and then pressed and held the crayon there ASAP. I hope that helps!!!
DeleteHow many packages of crayons did you use for this project?
ReplyDeleteTwo sets of the 64-color-sets from Crayola. :)
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