Be Mine?

What a glorious afternoon it was...

We frolicked over lunch and playgrounds and walking trails for hours. We even had enough left in us to stop by Michael's craft store on the way home to facilitate M's Valentine-making. This year we decided to have a go at making heart-shaped crayons to stick on homemade cards for M to pass out at preschool.  And I'm happy to report an *awesome* outcome!!!  Not to mention, the whole project was really age-appropriate for my little men, offering keen manual dexterity practice for their tiny fingers. They had a great time initially peeling crayons and purposefully breaking them (yes, this time mom was asking them to be broken! :) and were more intent throughout the project than I ever expected! Here they are, my focused little worker bees...

After the crayons were paper-free and small enough (~3cm/each), we arranged them in varied patterns in the bottom of a heart-shaped silicon muffin pan. Then we stuck the pan in a 250F oven and watched... for over 25 minutes... until all the crayons had melted. Out came the pan for more waiting and cooling until...

Voila! Beautiful heart-shaped crayons! My own heart lept at seeing the almost-artistic quality to the designs. Don't they look faintly Impressionistic? We were all so excited!! 

Finally, we took glue dots and stuck the crayon hearts to card stock cards with the saying "You Color My World, Valentine". M had also written his name on the cards to accompany the crayon. In the end, this was the final product. Magnifico!!

My sister and her boys made these cards last year, so I have to officially pay her credit for such a fabulous idea. She had seen the prototype in a magazine and had beautiful success! I double-checked details here and found that these holiday crayons are more than popular. We might just might have to make some more to give away for future events! All in all, this project receives an A+ for offering the G's a little fun on a February afternoon. And it also makes a mama's heart glow to see her son so excited about something he made! He can't wait to pass them out to his friends... ;)

God bless and much love--get pumped because it's almost the weekend!! Woo hoo!