Valentine’s Day is less than a week away! Yeah, I know, it’s a faux-holiday invented by major corporate scum to steal all our money! And blah blah blah. It’s also one of the few times a year I get to play with pink! I think I’ve said this before, but being a mom to boys means I don’t often see pink. You could say that’s my fault for following gender rules, but really, my son loves pink! He just doesn’t choose it as often as he chooses red or orange. It’s ok with me, because I do love me some orange. I just get a little tired of passing over pink, is all.

Anyway…This weekend, my sister chipped in and helped me with the single party favor I had my heart [!] set on making for Nate’s pre-k class. Heart crayons. Though stripping them of their paper and breaking them into small enough pieces was an absolute [and literal! my thumb still hurts] pain, they came out lovely.

Most how-to’s on the subject of heart crayons show an aluminum pan filled with crayon bits. Well, I went out and bought an aluminum pan, made a batch, but could NOT get them out! It was awful. So, I went out again and found a silicone pan and these lovely hearts were easily achieved.

I actually didn’t have enough crayon scraps (and I wasted a lot in the aluminum pan), so I bought 2 boxes of 64 Rose Art crayons ($2 each) for these. We split them up by color group and filled the slots accordingly. The aluminum pan fiasco taught me that contrasting colors didn’t go too well together in this project. I tried my best to keep them all within the same color group. I love the marbled–spin-art-ish–look!

I made a cheesy little tag with the line “you color my world” on it. Valentine’s Day party is this Friday!

ETA (some years later)
I’ve been emailed a few times to post some actual instructions. It’s super easy if you have the right tools! I bought THIS PAN from amazon because I couldn’t find it at my local stores.

Separate your crayons by color groups: reds/pinks, purples, blues, greens, oranges/yellows. To get the paper off easily, cut a slit down the length of the crayon with a knife. Break them into ~1/3″ – 1/2″ pieces and place like colors into pans. You get a better result if you mix lighter shades of a certain group with darker shades. I also like to add a piece or of contrasting color. Go wild! It makes a great sorting game. My kiddo liked it and then when I let him break the crayons? pssssh. Dream come true!

Bake between 225F and 250F for about 10 minutes. Take a look at them after 10 and if they are completely melted, gently take them out, and let them cool for at least 10 minutes. If there are still some chunks after 10 minutes, let them go for another minute or two. Keep an eye on them!

Have fun!