Thursday, February 9, 2012

Heart Shaped Crayons~ An Allergen Safe Valentine's Day Gift


Valentine's Day is next week and my daughter's preschool class is exchanging Valentines, as most classes do.  Last year we gave each child small boxes of chocolate, the year before that I think I gave out lollipops.  This year there is a child with a severe peanut allergy in the class so I have been staying away from food items. I saw the idea to make crayons a long time ago ( well before Pinterest) but never got around to doing it.  I then saw the idea on Pinterest again, and pinned it as a reminder to myself.  The pin is  pictures, not so much the directions.  They turned out fabulous and my daughter is so excited to hand them out on Tuesday. I have not yet decided how I am going to make the cards, but as soon as I do, I will add that picture to this post.

Valentine's Day Crayons:
You will need:
2 silicon baking pans with heart shapes ( I found mine at Walmart in the Valentine's section)
2 boxes generic crayons ( don't waste Crayolas on this - this generics work just as well)
1 baking tray wrapped in aluminum foil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250F
Peel the paper off of the crayons .This was the longest and most tedious part.  Break the crayons into small pieces- small enough to fit in the baking cups.  If you can, get the kids to help.


Fill each baking cup about halfway with broken crayons. Place the baking tray on the covered cookie sheet and bake at 250F for 15-25 minutes,  or until the crayons are completely melted. (this picture is of my second batch)


Remove from the oven and let cool completely.  They will harden after about 30 minutes.


Remove from the baking cups and you're done!  It really is that easy!  1 box of 64 crayons will make 12 heart shaped crayons.

To make them into Valentine's you can tape them to handmade cards, or premade purchased Valentines.  It's your choice.  I am going to make cards for my daughter's class.

*I am also going to order number and alphabet trays from Amazon and make letter and number crayons for my 1.5 year old daughter.*

Enjoy!

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