Crayola craft distraction

Today, we skipped nap for the second day in a row. It may have had something to do with the recent visit of the paci fairy, which I will discuss in a later post, when it's not so traumatic and just a distant memory (and a successful outcome). At any rate, I've found it necessary to wear the child out so she will go to bed tonight, so we stayed up and did crafts instead of napping.

While I enjoy crafts, I'm not terribly creative, so I stole these ideas from my cousin. Go check out her post on this Valentine garland. She is very creative.

First, take old crayons...preferably pinks, purples and reds. Shave little pieces off. I think this would have worked better with a pencil sharpener, but I used a pocket knife. The end result is a little, um, chunky as a result. But still pretty.

Sprinkle the shavings onto a piece of wax paper. Give a cheesy smile to the camera.

Cover with another piece of wax paper, then cover with a towel. Iron on medium heat.

Using cookie cutters, trace hearts. Cut out hearts. Tape/staple/string hearts together however you want.

Voila! Valentine hearts for your window. They look pretty when the light shines on them. This was a craft for Grammy's birthday (shhh...don't tell her!), but it works, of course, for Valentine's Day too.

While I was ironing/tracing/cutting/assembling, Olivia was charged with sorting the rest of the broken crayons by color into a muffin pan (another of my cousin's projects). She took this task very seriously and did an excellent job. Make sure you line your muffin pan with at least two and probably three muffin cups per space. This will keep wax from seeping into your pan.
Get ready for meltdown to make unique new crayons.

Bake at 275 for about 15 minutes or until melted.


Let cool, then pop those new crayons out. We made color families and also a few multicolored ones. The only problem was mixing different crayon brands...the wax seemed to have a different consistency. So these seem to break apart pretty easily. We can still save them for shaving and make Spring flower garlands similar to the hearts above. That might be fun.
Now it is time to go outside and get some Vitamin D. It may be 20 degrees, but I need some sunshine if I'm going to live through Olivia's paci withdrawal.