Happy Friday: Homemade Crayons for Valentine’s Day
Sent from reader, Gretchen:
We have another “cold day” off of school due to negative temperatures. So we are finishing off our Valentines for school. I used cards I bought last year after Valentine’s day for about 25 cents a box. Instead of attaching candy to each card, we have made crayons.
I used ice cube trays, hearts and Darth Vader heads (Darth Vader from Thinkgeek.com) and took all of our old broken up crayons to make new fun shaped crayons to go along with each card. Just make sure your ice cube trays are heat safe and set the oven to 250 – keep crayons in only until melted. This has made for really fun and inexpensive Valentines for my daughter’s class.
HAPPY FRIDAY!
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Might want to make sure they know it’s crayons not candy! But super cute!!
A tip: don’t use junky crayons for this. A lot of the crayons we used were cheap and waxy. Some of the crayons came out with a layer of clear wax on top. You pretty much have to use Crayolas or the finished crayons are useless.
Good to know my daughter has a ton of the cheap crayons my mother in law is always sending a pack with coloring books. I was going to do this tomorrow and use them up. I will rethink my plan if action now 🙂 thanks!
Cheap crayons are so annoying! They hinder the kids’ ability to create better art works. They have to keep going over and over the same area just to get some colors on the paper.
I hate cheap crayons too. I’m a Crayola snob and have my own box the kids can’t touch:)
What a neat idea!!!
My son got one of these last year on Valentines and I thought it was such a great idea – so much better than candy!
I love doing this! I buy broken crayons at garage sales for this very purpose! My kids take very good care of their things so we don’t have to many of our own laying around.
Kids want CAnDy…they will just toss this aside.
Maybe they can eat candy while they color with their cool crayons.
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Yes, they like candy but they also like COLORING. I totally agree with Amy, they can eat candy and color!
My kids don’t like candy “it’s to sweet! It makes my tongue itch”
itch hahaha kids r so funny
makes my tongue itch for more!!!!
Candy is no longer allowed in many school districts. A letter goes home to parents specifically asking that no candy be given with valentines. These crayons are a great alternative.
My daughter’s only a year old so when I found out that my cousin who is in 1st grade cant have homemade or unhealthy snack. Its crazy we had parties all year long with candy for every birthday. Kids are going to be missing out on the things that made is love school.
Sure, they want candy, but do they need 24 pieces of candy???? I love candy alternatives and we are not health nuts at all. We are giving pencils and bookmarks that my girls made. They are so excited to hand them out.
I’m with you on the candy. By the time we’re done with Halloween candy, we get an influx of Christmas candy. When that’s almost gone, it’s Vday, and so on through the whole school year! That said, the novelty erasers and pencils that come home rarely get used, either. Not sure why. Maybe because they just don’t work as well (erasers that smudge but don’t erase/pencils that don’t sharpen properly) or maybe because they are just too cute to use. I end up packing them up and sending them to the teachers for their “treasure boxes.”
My mom used to make these when I was little!
As an occupational therapist, this is so wonderful for a child’s fine motor skills….peeling the crayon label off and using the finished product! The smaller the crayon, the better. Super cute and memories to last a lifetime! FYI you can also use a toaster oven and slide in the tray that way too if it fits.
I’m a pediatric OT too! 🙂 LOVE small crayon!
Super Cool Idea
Love it! The fun shapes make it even more special!
Question… do they really make “heat safe” ice tray (why)??? Do they mean to use silicone modes or jello modes?
they are silicone ice cube trays that can be used as jello molds or soap molds or in this case crayon molds:)
Thanks for asking that. I was wondering the same thing.
Love non-food Valentine’s! Healthier and safe for kids with allergies.
How do you know if oven safe? I have the Lego person ice mold. Does anyone know if that is oven safe?
Love this idea! So much better than candy. I couldn’t believe last year when my 2 year old got all kinds of age inappropriate candy at V day from her preschool class. This is such a better idea. Thanks for sharing.
AWESOME IDEA!
Awesome idea! I am putting this on the list. I got a giant box full of pens from Michaels grab bag sale my six year old is handing out the red birds, my nine year old is doing the tattoo ones.
Great idea! So cute! I hate when my daughter gets too much candy!
On vacation alone for a week with 2 kids, we gathered over 2 dz of crayons from restaurants. Might have to put them to good use, although they are the generic kind and not crayola of course (which I too don’t care for anything but crayola, especially water paints!)
I am so doing this! thank you for the idea
I made 4 dozen of the heart shape ones tonight. The hardest part was peeling the paper off the crayon! I ended up using a knife and found the exact place to slice the paper so it came off in one piece. It’s not easy task to break off 48 crayons.
But overall I enjoyed the project and I am sure the kids will be excited to pass it out on Friday.