Valentine's Day fun

This year for Valentine's Day, I wanted to come up with something fun to send to school that did not involve a bunch of extra sugar.  These crayon heart's turned out so great and they were pretty easy to make.  Here is how I made them:

Step 1:  Gather broken and discarded crayons or a new box or two if you don't have lots of extras laying around the house.   You will need to remove the paper.  I used a pair of scissors to score the paper down the side of each crayon, making it easier to remove.  This is a good project to do ahead of time.  I worked on it while watching a favorite TV show.

Step 2:  Use a knife to carefully cut the crayons into 1/2 inch or smaller sections, sorting by color groups (blues/greens, reds/pinks, oranges/yellows, etc.).

Step 3:  Fill a silicone baking tray with some of each color.  I found that it helps to be a little bit fussy about how you fill each heart so that the colors have some good definition when they melt.  It doesn't have to be perfect--just put several of each color together as you fill the pan.  Fill each heart two-thirds of the way full.

Step 4:  Pre-heat oven to 230 degrees.  Place the silicone pan on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (this will prevent any stray crayon pieces from melting onto your pan). 

Step 5:  Place the pan in the oven for 10-20 minutes, monitoring periodically.  Once the crayon pieces have melted completely, remove the pan and allow it to cool at room temperature.  This will take about an hour.  Once the hearts have completely cooled and they crayon has re-hardened, the heart shaped crayons are easy to remove from the pan by simply bending the silicone tray and popping them out. 

Step 6:  Attach the crayons to cardstock or insert them into a clear plastic bag with your message.  I created the card pictured above using Microsoft Word, printed it out on heavy weight cardstock, and trimmed with my paper trimmer. The hearts can be attached using glue dots or double-sided tape.

If you would like to use my template just send me an e-mail through the link below and I will be happy to send it as an attachment.