There are a number of fun family activities associated with holidays. One of the holidays that can be especially for kids (and parents) is Valentine's Day. It's a great time to teach your children about giving heartfelt messages -- no expensive gifts required. One of my favorite Valentine's Day crafts is the melted crayon heart. The heart can be given as a gift, or it can be taped to paper or cardstock to make a homemade Valentine card.
Making a Valentine's Day Crayon Heart
First of all, you will need the following items to make the melted crayon heart:
- Pieces from crayons (old and broken crayons are great for this), with the paper wrappers removed.
- Muffin tin with heart shapes (you can find these at most baking stores -- especially in February).
If you plan to mount the crayon heart in order to make a Valentine card, you will need these additional items:
- Heavy construction paper or card stock.
- Mounting foam available at most craft stores or art supply shops (double sided -- regular tape will not be strong enough).
- Scissors
- Markers
The first thing to do is heat the oven to 250 degrees. While the oven is warming up, send your kids in search of crayon pieces. Put the crayon pieces in the heart shaped muffin tin molds. It takes between 10 and 15 minutes for the pieces to melt into fun, swirled hearts. A cookie sheet placed under the muffin tin can catch overflow.
Let the crayon hearts cool. While this is happening, I like to increase the temperature in the oven and make sugar cookies with my son. When we're ready to bake the cookies, the melted hearts have usually cooled so that we can take them out of the molds.
If you plan to make cards with the melted crayon hearts, take the heavy paper and cut out large shapes (circles, squares -- or even larger hearts). Use the mounting foam to stick the crayon hearts to the heavy paper and use the markers to write a message and decorate to your heart's desire.
