Valentine Craft

The tots have made a bunch of Valentine crafts over the past week. I’ve sent home pink blobs of paint (fingerpaint on heart-shaped waxed paper), pink blobs of paper on pipecleaners (supposedly flowers), pink blobs of sparkles (because a craft isn’t a craft if there aren’t sparkles to eat!!) The kids have enjoyed themselves greatly, and the parents have graciously ooh-ed and ah-ed over their pink blobs.

Today is Valentine’s Day, though, and those gracious parents deserve something a little more festive and a little less amoebic. So – Valentine sun-catchers!

First you pick some old crayons in appropriate colours. We used red, pink, and yellow. Grate them onto wax paper. (They get filled with static, and cling like mad – to your hands, your shirt, the paper. They leap and dance when your hand nears. Very funny.)

Take a piece of wax paper. Ours were about six inches wide and the length of the roll. Place it on top of a section of newspaper on your kitchen counter. Fold the wax paper in half.

Sprinkle a little grated crayon onto half the wax paper. Don’t be too liberal in your sprinkling: too much crayon, and the light won’t shine through.

Fold the other half of the wax paper over the crayon bits. Cover with a sheet of newspaper. (This protects your iron from the wax of the paper, and from the wax should any seep out from between the two layers of waxed paper.)

Gently press with an iron set on delicate. If you simply press, the wax will melt in place. If you slide the iron around, the wax will swirl a bit. Totally up to you.

Voila! Festive melted crayon! (I know, I know, it’s very blob-like. Bear with me.)

Now for the frame. Cut yourself a heart from a piece of construction paper. Do it with the paper folded over, so you get two hearts. Then cut the centres out, so you get two heart-shaped frames:

Open the frames, and place one onto the wax paper-crayon-blob. Trace around the outside edge.

Cut the wax paper just inside the traced heart so you get a heart that fits the frame. Glue frames to the heart, one on each side.

Punch a hole through the heart, string with festive ribbon, and hang in a window! Ta-dah!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!