I have to be honest. This is not one of my "favorite" holidays. Granted, it has become a nice holiday after meeting my hubby 14 years ago. Sadly, I don't even like hearts that much. But it is Valentine's Day and my kids did need valentines to take to their class parties. So after looking through tons of ideas on Pinterest, I decided to give recycled crayons a try.
I have always wanted to make fun crayons. For Caleb's 5th birthday, we did a Star Wars themed party and I ordered amazing Star Wars character crayons from Etsy. They were a big hit. So I decided to try my hand at crayon making, using some ice cube trays from Ikea. Yep, brilliant. I had another sick kid - this time my baby, and getting to the store was looking a little tricky. So I was trying to be resourceful.First, peel off the paper. I can see why Crayola cost's more - they use more paper!!! Seriously, the crayons from restaurants were twice as fast. I am letting me kids take home every crayon from now on. I sprayed the pan with Pam and turned the oven to 275 degrees. With the first batch, I let the kids pick their color choices. It is best to mix light with dark shades. We filled the cute star and puzzle shaped trays with broken crayons and stuck them in the oven for 12 minutes.
If you decide to be "resourceful" like me, and use a soft flexible ice cube tray, please know that it will not be easy to pull out of the oven without spilling crayon wax everywhere. (lesson #1)
I stuck the trays in the freezer, and the crayons quickly set. Sadly, the cute star and puzzle shapes were more difficult to remove then I anticipated. My idea of "you have a piece of my heart" or "you make my heart shine" didn't quite work. Did I mention I needed to make 36 of these things?!Luckily my hubby gave me the afternoon off, and I quickly ran to Michaels and bought a heart shaped non-stick pan. It cost more than my Ikea counterparts, but the non-stick surface was a life saver. (lesson #2)
We broke a lot more crayons, and I helped the kids with color combinations. (lesson #3) I am really happy with how they turned out. And the kids were really proud of their creations. I wish I had found a pan that had smaller hearts. I think the ones we made might crack easily when the kids use them. But the shallow heart form in the pan made it really easy to pop them out after cooling.
We had a lot of fun! If I hadn't had a sick baby, I would have shopped for cute confetti to add to each bag. Oh well, maybe next year. I wrote "You melt my heart" on each of Abby's bags. Caleb didn't like that idea so he went with "I heart (drawn heart) you." This was a great winter's day activity.
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