Guest Post: Amanda Johnson Arts And Crafts Valentines Edition!

Amanda Johnson is an early childhood development expert and friend of the store. If you missed her first guest post, check it out here where you'll also find more info about her experience and employment availability at the bottom.

We're psyched for round two with this awesome Valentines Day inspired craft activity!

Recycled Crayons for Valentine's Day Kid's Craft 

This is a craft the kids will love and definitely use. Heart shapes are the perfect size and shape for little hands.

It's also a great use for all the broken home crayons and “leftover restaurant” crayons. Surely, I’m not the only one who feels bad that those three or four free crayons will just be thrown away after the kids have barely used them. This process also teaches children about recycling.

Materials Required:

• Broken/unwanted crayons

• Heart shaped silicone cookie/candy mold and/or Non-stick cookie/candy mold

• Knife

• Cutting board

Steps:

Step 1: Gather all the broken crayons lying around the house

Step 2: Peel the paper from the crayons

Step 3: Chop the crayons into smaller pieces

Step 4: Divide the crayons into the molds

Step 5: Baking Time!

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Once the oven is ready, place the molds into the oven and heat the crayons for approximately 20 minutes. Do be careful as you remove them from the oven, because you don’t want to spill the hot wax inside the oven or on someone’s skin.

Notes:

If you use silicon mold or shaped muffin tin mold you don't need to worry about greasing up the molds because the crayons will just pop out when cooled. You'll probably want to pay close attention to which crayons you mix together to ensure the colors don’t blend towards a muddy brown. Try to keep complimenting colors with one another (like pink, orange, and red) so even if it does all blend together, you'd at least have a variety of hews.

Enjoy!