Recently, Mya hasn’t wanted to leave the house. “Stay home” is her most common demand. The cold weather makes it pretty easy to stay in and play, but we’ve been “forced” to do more small projects to prevent cabin fever. One of those projects was making crayon hearts. It might be a bit too early to think about Heart Day, but we made some Valentines’ anyway. Plus, they don’t have to be for any special occasion– just for everyday play.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Silicone tray (We got ours at Ikea for $1. I would recommend getting a cheap one because they cannot be used for food afterward.)
Crayons (Old broken crayons work great because you use small crayon bits anyway.)
NOTE: If you want to make them into Valentines’, add some Colored Paper, Scissors, Hot Glue, and Marker to your supply list.
WHAT TO DO
1. While your kiddo colors, remove all paper wrappers from the crayons. (Check out that pinkie finger action!)
2. Break the crayons into smaller pieces. I didn’t use a knife– I just used my hands to snap them into little bits.
3. Place the crayon pieces in the silicon tray. Heap as many as you can into each void because the crayons will melt down a lot. (We also made some “monster crayons” in the blue tray.”)
4. Bake at 275 degrees for about 15 minutes. Place trays on old cookie sheet. Check oven every couple minutes and remove trays when all crayon bits have melted down. (The Ikea silicone trays that we used were nice because they had a little lipped edge for accidental spillage. I wasn’t careful about keeping the trays level when taking them out of the oven and some of the meltings ventured out of the pockets. Whoopsie.)
5. Let the crayons completely cool and harden before popping them out of their silicone pockets. You can shave off any uneven edges with a knife. Then it’s just happy coloring!
6. For the Valentines’, cut two paper circles (one slightly larger than the other) and fringe the edges with scissors. Using very little hot glue, secure the two paper circles to each other. Then use another small dab of hot glue to secure the crayon heart to the middle of your Valentine. Write your message with marker and you’re done!
Mya still wanted to color while the crayons were in the oven, so we tried out some Kid Made Modern Crayons from Target. They are surprisingly ergonomic for little hands. Definitely a good $5 buy.
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