<3 Valentine's Crafts and Introducing my Pinterest! <3
<3<3<3 February is here! Yay! <3<3<3
As a kid my favorite holiday was Valentine's Day. I know that seems weird because it seems like every kids favorite is the one where they get the most new toys. And trust me, birthday and Christmas were high up on my list of favorite days. But there was something so different about Valentine's Day. The pink and red glitter covered crafts. Peeling apart the adorable paper lace heart shaped doilies. The little box of chocolates my parents would surprise my brother and me with that morning. Cards from our Granny that actually came in the mail! (Hey, mail is exciting when you are little!)
But I think my favorite thing of all was the Valentines themselves. Making them. "Addressing" them. Passing them out with little treats at school. And then getting to sort through all that appeared in my little mailbox. My perfectly crafted, glittered and glued mailbox. And even though I know to many it is just a commercial holiday, I still couldn't help but feel so loved as I went through them all.
And now I have a little one in school. So of course I am THRILLED because I get to pass that love on to her. To teach her why it is so amazing. I am fortunate enough to have a little girl very much like me. She is a rose colored glasses, glass half full, silver lining kind of gal. It's not hard to me to teach her because she know how important it is to remind people they are loved. She is the master of random acts of kindness and knowing when you need a hug. She was MADE for this Valentine's Day thing.
This year we ended up just buying cards, because she is super into Angry Birds right now and I found a cute set at the store. But I am sure she will find a way to make them her own.
But last year I decided to get a little crafty. And in case any of you out there had thought about getting a little crafty too, I figured I would share with you what we did so you can give it a shot too. It was a blast.
CRAYON HEARTS!
These are awesome for a number of reasons.
1} SO EASY
2} If you are like me you have the supplies for them sitting around the house already.
3} Good activity for kids to help with.
4} The kids LOVE them.
5} SO. EASY.
First things first. To make these you will need an oven, a muffin pan (silicone hearts work best), a bunch of crayons. Boom, simple, right?
You'll want to preheat the oven to 230 degrees (or as low as you can make it near there).
Then you want to take your crayons and peel and break them into small pieces. Or if you are like me it is a perfect usage of all of those crayons that you have laying around that have already been demolished by children who are not gentle with their art supplies. Either way works.
The smaller the pieces the better they melt and mix and the smoother the hearts will be.
Use can use a knife too if they aren't breaking well enough but make sure you are super careful and don't let the kids do that part.
Crayons roll. Knives are sharp. 'Nough said.
Next you take the crayon bits and add a single layer of crayon across the bottom. Enough to fully cover but not so thick to prevent good melting. You can mix colors how ever you want. I'm a picky art person so I did warm colors and cool colors and then mixed white in with both. Added a cool pop of contrast, especially in the darker cool colors. Nerd rant done. You can do rainbow, all reds and pinks, puice and fuschia, whatever your heart desires. I won't judge.
Then pop those bad boys in the oven for about 15 minutes and let them melt. When I did it we had a mix of big and little crayons so it took a little longer than normal, just check on them periodically in the first batch as each oven is different to find your ideal time/temp combo.
(Don't they look super cool melty?)
Let them cool, pop them out, and you are done! Yay! Easy right? We then just put them in a little pack with some gummies and cards. But there are all kinds of cute homemade cards you can use with these. Which brings me to part two. Pinterest! As I planned this I decided rather than leaving you to your own to find the cards, I would make it easy and put together a board of fun crafts, cards, treats, etc for Valentine's Day! There is a wide range in there, from baby and toddler crafts, printables if you aren't the getting messy type, cute gifts for the SO, family, and coworkers, and of course tons of school age ideas. The board is here, https://www.pinterest.com/photobykait/adorable-valentines-3/.
I hope you have fun making this! If you do, I'd love to hear how it went. What colors you picked, if you found a good trick to cleaning the pan out after. Mine was extra sticky. What card you included. Let's share the momma fun!
And if you happen to be wanting to include some cute little Valentine photos with your cards I still have some openings for Valentine minis. Just head here to my contact page and let me know ASAP so we can get them back to you in time for the holiday.
Happy crafting!
