I saw something on Pinterest a while ago about a use for broken crayons. Can’t remember where it was or what the use was, but some snippet of the idea filed in my brain somewhere between the idea of trying sweet potatoes on top of Shepherd’s Pie and the lyrics to all of the songs from the Lion King. I guess that’s a things that might be useful someday section.

I wanted to do something crafty with the Bear for Valentine’s this year, probably because I didn’t want to pass out candy or spend twenty bucks at the dollar store to cover all the kids in the Pre-K class at preschool. Or maybe because I’m trying to add more things to a full to-do list to see how far I can get towards a nervous breakdown without cracking. Let’s hope not on that last one.

So the adventure began with separating out the broken crayons and peeling off their paper.

The Bear had a loose definition of broken, but we have so many crayons, I was okay with that.

I chopped them up. And took a picture.

Then we organized them into a pre-sprayed mini muffin tin.

Then we baked them in the oven at 250F for maybe 20ish minutes until they were nice and melty.

We took them out and let them cool overnight. Apparently the cheaper crayons produce a little waxy layer at the top (which is eventually the bottom). We’ve picked up some cheap crayons along the way. You could scape off the extra wax if you could be bothered to do so. I couldn’t be bothered. As they say in Scotland.

And this was the finished Bear-paw sized result!Pretty and fun, hey?

Then I created a little print-out for the Bear to fill in the To: and From: with his preschool friends’ names. It says “You Color My World.” And I resisted the urge to use the British spelling of color.

That was hard.

We wrapped the crayons in cling film and tied them with whatever it is this type of cord is called… I have forgotten the name of it.

Like we spaced out the work in the previous steps, we have been putting together a few of the crayon-valentines each day for a little “craft time” — and they’ll all be ready in time for the party.

So the awesomesauce result of our fun little crafty time together? Besides having fun doing a craft with the Bear, I spent $0 on these Valentines. Which fits in the budget very nicely, don’t ya think?

I wrote a little poem to go on the back so that the kids wouldn’t try to eat these completely unedible Valentines:

This might look like a tasty treat,
but this little circle is not to eat!
It’s a crayon – colorful & round,
so grab some paper & go to town!

Do you love my poetic skills? 🙂

And guess what? I decided to spare you the work of doing this yourself and uploaded a pdf for you to use if you want! Click right here:

ValentinesPrintable

The Valentines are business card size, so if you were really lazy had those perforated business card sheets you could just print and pull ’em apart.

I scoured the net to figure out how to do the melting part, and Our Best Bites has a beautiful post with lots of pretty pictures and ideas and good instructions. I think you should check that out, too! {And save me the hassle of typing it out again here.}

I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!

xCC