Friday, February 17, 2012

Heart Shaped Crayon Valentines


Color Your Heart Out!


As an elementary school teacher for almost 10 years, I have received A LOT of valentines. I totally understand the convenience of buying the prepackaged valentines in the box. But having received somewhere around 300 of them... I wanted to make unique Valentines for my daughter to take to her daycare exchange.

Now months and months ago, I saw this pin and thought they were so cute! And as luck would have it I came across a heart shaped Wilton pan on clearance at Michaels (one of my happy places) in the fall which I immediately snatched up for $2.50. And then I waited..... :)

February was finally here! It was finally time to make the crayons. I have tubs of crayons in my basement from my aforementioned teaching days so I didn't have to buy any crayons. I know the pin says use old broken crayons....but you are going to need more than a few broken pieces and a variety of colors too. So go buy a pack or 2 of 24 crayons. I had mostly Crayola but I doubt the brand or type matters.

All excited, I started peeling the crayons by hand. BIG MISTAKE. Not only is it annoying, its takes forever and makes a huge mess. So I ran off to the interwebs and found out that you should just use a utility knife and slice down the side...and wahla. That was so easy that I ended up peeling A LOT of crayons.

Now it was time to melt the crayons. When I actually read the pin above it said that she "couldn't imagine how to use a metal pan" since she had a tough time getting the crayons out of the silicone pan she used. GREAT. My clearance pan is METAL. Of course I ran back to Pinterest and found this pin which was perfect! (note the metal pan :)

Heart Shaped Crayons

Now what I also liked about this pin was that she made solid colored crayons as opposed to the mixed up swirly ones. I am a crayon purist apparently and I wanted to make solid colored ones. I followed the directions from blogspot show in the picture above...here is the link. Most important things: 1) spray the pan with cooking spray and 2) freeze them after melting the wax. Here are some pics of my first batch ( I made like 5 batches...I said I peeled A LOT of crayons)
Before Melting

After Melting

Pretty cute!


Once I had all 48 crayons completed I had to figure out how to package them. I went to google and searched for some templates and labels. I pinned the circle template and the labels so I could use them again next year. (Hey I already have the pan....) I bought mini red and white gift bags at..yup...Michaels for 59¢ each. Stuck the crayons on the circles and the labels on the bags. I really loved how cute they were! Each toddler got 3 easy to hold heart shaped crayons to color for Valentines from my daughter...I felt like a good mommy on Valentines Day :) 








Happy Valentines & Happy Pinning!
Tiffany


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