Crayon Hearts

Here is a great Valentine's Day craft to do with your kids. They make great Valentines to give away, and you can use this same idea for any holiday with all the great silicone molds out there.
I found this at familyfun.com a couple years ago and thought it would be perfect for Jack and I to do together to give to his classmates at his preschool Valentine's Day party. I took alot of pictures, and will give you my tips for making these quick, easy and cute. Click here for the link to instructions at Family Fun.

You can use recycled old broken crayons, but I bought a new big box of Crayola crayons for $3(tip: use crayola for best results, other brands are too waxy and the colors will not be as vibrant). The best way to remove the paper is to use a little paring knife. You can also soak the crayons to make the paper easier to peel if you are using lots of little broken crayons.

Make a slit down the center of the crayon with the paring knife (do not let your child help with this step, grown ups only!).

Peel off wrapper and set aside.

It is best to use only the lighter colors, as the dark colors (black, brown, dark blues, purple) will look black when melted. Here is what I ended up using for mine.

Break them up into small pieces. Here is when your kids can get involved. Jack loved breaking the crayons. Probably because I am always telling him 1) not to peel the wrappers off and 2) not to break them on purpose. Ha. I decided to use the browns mixed with a few greens to make camouflage looking hearts. This was a great way to use up the browns that I normally leave out.

These are the sad lonely crayons that did not make the cut, but will be enjoyed thoroughly by Ethan who loves to break the tips off of new crayons.

I used a Silicone Heart Pan, but Family Fun says you can use a metal mini heart pan too. I would definitely spray the heck out of a metal pan with non-stick spray if you go that route. Fill each heart to the top. I put my Silicone Heart Pan on a cookie sheet since it is rather flimsy, and to catch any spills or drips. Bake at 250 degrees for 12 minutes, until crayons are melted.

Carefully remove from oven and put into freezer for 5 minutes to let them set up. As you can see I was not careful and the melted crayons spilt all over the place when I did this. It is not a good idea to do this while talking on the phone and referring a sibling disagreement.
Once the crayons are set up and no longer warm, remove from freezer and pop them out of the mold by inverting it.
If you have any rough edges you can rub them off on a piece of paper. Here they are finished.
There are many ways to package these as Valentines, but I decided to use little clear bags and make fold over labels for the tops. Since these are going to little munchkins I did not use staples to attach the labels. I used clear glue to secure them in place. I think they came out cute! You can attached them to cardstock or patterned paper with double stick tape and use any of these cheesey solgans:
You color my world!
I Melt for You.
For ‘Crayon’ Out Loud Happy Valentine’s Day
Have fun making yours!