melted crayon valentines

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These cute melted crayon Valentines have been floating around the web for years now, but this is the first time we’ve tried it.

Our own take on the melted crayon Valentine turned out really, really awesome.

Don’t get me wrong–we’ve melted crayons before.

We just never used them for Valentines. We experimented with them on a super-hot summer day.

Our family is always on the hunt for crazy-cool, handmade and candy-free Valentines that the kids can make and share with their classmates, these melted crayon Valentines are for sure a win.

And I have the printable we used right here for you to use as well. You’re welcome.

Really–everything you need to make these at home, with your kids. Kids will love them and more than that? They’ll love spending the time with you.

Here’s the skinny. . .

Melted Crayon Valentines:

You really don’t need all that much for these handmade Valentines. And most likely–if your family is anything like our family, you have a boatload of broken crayon pieces in a box somewhere.

Go grab em.

If you act quickly, you can order the few supplies you need from Amazon now, like I did.

Here’s what you need:

silicon molds: (I love these Heart, Star, and Seashell molds the most–they’re easy to use and clean and make nice, small crayons.)
satin ribbon: We used 1/8″ thin satin ribbon in hot pink, red, and purple.
super-small treat bags
card stock: Go with either Astrobrights in bright colors or white, depending on what works best for you.
crayon bits! Do not buy crayons just to break and melt. If you don’t have old crayons lying around, ask friends. Ask preschools or Sunday schools. Ask restaurants. Someone in your world has crayon pieces you can use.

Here’s what do to:

1. Sort the crayons.

Then make sure to peel and break the crayons.

We found it was easier to break them in the middle and then peel them–and then break them again into teenier pieces.

3. Fill the molds.

We placed ours on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil, but I’m not sure you need the foil.

We put more crayons than we thought we needed because we knew from experience that that worked best.

Cora wanted only ‘Valentine’ molds and colors–pink, red, and purple, but Owen was game to use any colors we had.

Sometimes, mixing contrasting colors looked really cool–so play with it. Experiment and have fun.

The filled molds looked almost as pretty as our melted crayons did!

We used flower molds and star molds–and the star ones turned out super cute.

4. Melt those crayons!

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

We watched ours very closely because it took us quite a while to peel and break the crayons, and we didn’t want our hard work to be lost.

It took about 15-20 minutes to fully melt the crayons, but really–all ovens are different, so watch!

Let the crayons cool!

We left ours on the trays but placed the tray on a cooling rack for a good long time.

The crayons really must be cooled completely before you remove them from the molds; otherwise, they won’t have a crisp look and they’ll lose shape.

It took about two hours for our crayons to fully cool.

Remove the crayons from the molds.

This was a fun part–because of the stretchy silicon, all you need to do is pull and stretch the mold, and the crayons will pretty much pop out.

Kids love this.

Keeping track of whose crayons were whose was our most difficult task, but Cora kept a close eye.

5.Print, cut and sign the Valentines.

Friends. Put your kids to work. Sure, these aren’t the easiest shape to cut, but Valentine cards to not need to be perfect.

Get those little hand muscles to work–cutting is super-helpful for developing kids’ fine motor skills.

The Valentine cards are here for you to print if you choose– simply sign up below and the template will end up in your inbox!

6. Assemble the Valentines!

Punch two little holes in the upper lefthand corner of the heart.

Then thread the ribbon through the holes. I cut pieces of ribbon about 8-10 inches long.

Then have the kids sign their Valentines!

If you are addressing the Valentine cards, kids can write to (name) / love (name) on the bottom left or on the back. Either works!

Ask your child what he or she wants to do.

Owen wanted to just write ‘Owen’ on his, but Cora went for ‘Love, Cora’.

Really, let kids decide. These are their Valentines!

We worked together to design these Valentines, and we decided that the easiest way to include the crayon would be to tie the bag onto it.

And I think that worked for us.

Owen and Cora put the crayons into bags, and I tied and double-knotted the ribbons.

Then we put each kid’s Valentines cards in a plastic gallon-sized bag so they’d stay safe until the class parties!

Two weeks to go, and we’re still firming up ideas for class parties.

Owen has requested a Minute to Win it idea, so we’ll see how that goes. . .

Did you like this idea?
I’d love it if you pinned it for later:

Want a few more fun Valentine’s Day ideas? Check out:

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