Get Your Heart On...

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I can already feel my sweet tooth calling. I wanted to find a craft that was cheap, unique, fun and something my preschooler could help out with. Craftzine.com recently featured an article on molded crayon hearts and immediately I knew this was the very project I was looking for. 

One rainy Saturday we took a trip to S.C.R.A.P. and loaded up a bag full of broken, misfit crayons. The challenging part was stripping all of the paper off the crayons. I still have multi-colored remnants beneath my nails. Target was selling the mini heart silicone muffin pans (which get pretty wrecked after this craft,  I must say). We spent quite some time sorting the crayon bits by color, then chopping them into pea-size bits and filling the muffin pan. It took 15 minutes per batch at an oven temp of 275°F. DON'T try to transport the pan before the melted crayon is set. I spent another afternoon tediously scraping dripped red crayon off the linoleum floor. Oops!

The colored cardstock paper was also found at S.C.R.A.P. ($3.00 for the bag 'o crayons and a thick stack of cardstock!). I designed the type and graphics in Illustrator and then ran the cards through my home printer. Note the "I'm a crayon!" detail. Didn't want her classmates to think they were getting a swirly, tasty treat and take a little bite. The bottom edge was cut with scallop-edge scissors for the finishing touch.