DIY Crayon Valentine’s Day Class Gift with FREE Printable
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Looking for a fun DIY project for your child’s class on Valentine’s Day? Make these super cute heart crayons with a free printable gift tag for under $10! Easy and safe for your kids to make and more unique than store-bought cards.
The following post contains affiliate links. By clicking on the links you are supporting my site at no cost to you and allowing me to continue to create free content. I promise, I only share products that I use and love! For more information please see my disclosure page.
My two-year-old son and I recently started making our own crayons and we are addicted! Using random crayons, a silicone mold, and your oven you’ll have homemade crayons before you know it.
For every holiday, my son’s class does a little gift exchange and I always try to find a craft that he can participate in. For Halloween we did “mummy” applesauce pouches, Thanksgiving we did turkeys using star crunches and for Christmas, we made reindeer out of oatmeal cream pies. If you’d like a tutorial on any of those let me know in the comments! He has so much fun doing these projects and with only 8 classmates it’s perfect for a toddler’s attention span.
What you will need
This project is incredibly simple and only needs the following items:
A big pack of crayons. For the mold I used, I thought at first I could get away with only 4 crayons but after breaking them up I added 1 more. Then after melting I realized I could have used 1-2 more crayons. So if you’re using the same mold as I did, I recommend 5-7 crayons per heart mold. For any other mold make sure you stuff as many broken crayon pieces as possible in each mold. I chose to use the slightly more expensive, washable crayons from Crayola. I figure since it’s a gift for 2-year-olds this was the safest route.
A silicone heart mold. Any shape mold that is used for making candy and is oven safe will work great! Above is the exact same one I used. I love the geometric shape of the hearts! When I bought mine, it was on sale for under $5 from Amazon. Another option other than Amazon is to visit your favorite craft store and use a coupon to get your mold for potentially cheaper!
You’ll need a printer and cardstock to print your labels. This is optional, if you don’t have a printer, your kids can handwrite labels. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the free printable of the label.
Either plastic candy bags or I simply used the really cheap fold-top sandwich bags that don’t come with a zipper. Either one will work great! I like using items I already have or know that I can use them for other things.
Finally, you’ll need an oven and baking sheet to place your mold on.
Instructions
The first step is to tear the wrapper off all your crayons. Your kids are more than likely experts at this already! If you’re making a lot of crayons, you can get real fancy and buy these crayons that conveniently come without the wrapper.
The next step, is to break them into 3-4 pieces each. Another project your kids are professionals at!
Now, you want to place them into your molds. You can arrange the colors any way you want. This can be fun for kids to arrange and pair different colors any way they want! If you’re using the same mold as I did, you’ll want between 5-7 crayons. Otherwise, just make sure you fill your molds to the very max. As you’d imagine as the crayons melt, all the gaps get filled in and the size is reduced.
Now it’s time to bake! Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Place your mold on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes. Mine took around 15 minutes to completely melt. I kept a close eye on them after 12 minutes. The amount of time it makes all depends on the size of the mold you are using. I do recommend if you are making something smaller, like my car crayons, that you only put your oven on 225 degrees and expect them to cool much faster. Another note is that different crayon brands might melt differently.
Once they have completely melted, take them out of the oven. Once they are cool to the touch pop them out of your mold!
Next, print out my free printable label on either white or colored cardstock. Cut them out and fold them in half. Place your crayon in your bag and then staple the top shut!
This project is so fun and engaging for younger kids and once you have the supplies you can make endless crayons! Your little maker will be very proud to give out their homemade gift to their friends.
