Crayon you be my valentine?

I've been obsessed with making my own crayons for a year or so, and Valentine's Day 2012 motivated me to buy the molds and jump in. We bought 3 kinds of silicone molds (they're chocolate molds) on Amazon--hearts, dinos, and the Alphabet.

Essentially all you have to do is peel the labels off all of your gross, stubbly crayons (you know you have buckets of 'em), and put them in the molds. We like to group like colors together. That way, you get a pretty harmonious marbled effect, instead of a crayon that looks like mixed up playdoh (you know what I'm talking about. Blech.). About 10 minutes in a 250 degree oven, then let the wax cool and pop them out. Super easy, but wow! I am in love with the outcome! (Note: It can be longer than 10 minutes (and in the case of the dinos and letters we needed longer and had to keep adding crayons so there would be enough wax), but you start to lose your marbled effect after that point.)

So I saw some crayon hearts floating around pinterest, and decided to make valentine crayons for Blaine's Kindergarten class. The fun thing is that he was totally into it, so it really became a family project, not just Mom doing something cute (you know what I'm talking about). In the meantime, I had recruited design help from Emily Yates, Design Goddess (I just named you that, Emily, how do you like it?). She created the darling labels. So, in the end, we gave hearts to the girls, dinos to the boys, and letters for the teacher and her aide--Mrs. B. and Mrs. Q.

Aren't they so fun?! We were thrilled with them and can't wait to use them in later years with the other boys. And I have all sorts of ideas swirling in my head now that I can make my own crayons...

As for me, I made my valentine a few little heart notes, and stuck them to the wall with red polka-dotted washi tape. They were mostly sentimental, with a little steamy mixed in.

Re-cap of V-day Party 2012 soon!

xo,

anne