crafty kids + their crafty mom = homemade Valentine's cards!

Hey all!

I know it's a little over a week after Valentine's Day, but I wanted to share with you the Valentine's Day cards my kids and I made for thier classes:

These are the ones we made for J's class:

Let me just start off by saying that I am in NO WAY super duper creative. I got this idea from another mommy-friend of mine who did this for her son's class this year too! Thanks so much for the idea and inpiration, April! :)

The free pirate printables came from: HERE. There's also a pirate-girl verson too! I picked up the erasers from Target in their Dollar/Valentine's section.

Here are more pictures of the set of cards:

And here they are packaged up!

I had J sign his name on the back of each one and also had him address them. Granted, I had to spell each of his classmates names for him, but all in all, he did a fabulous job!

I should totally get a mommy-of-the-year award this time around! Last year his cards were store-bought, we didn't include a treat, and it was like pulling teeth to have him write his name on each one! *lol*

Anyway, on to M's cards... I got this idea from somewhere... It might have been from a blog I follow or maybe Pinterest, but I had seen the concept of making crayons from broken crayons over a year ago. I had been itching to try it out and I thought it would be a great time as any to do it for Valentine's day.

You start off with the crayons... You can either gather broken ones you have laying around the house or break them up yourself (remember to remove the paper wrapper!)

You know, breaking up the crayons wasn't the hardest part - it was removing the wrappers! I don't remember the paper wrapper being so hard to rip off of a crayon. Maybe they use a different adhesive to keep it on? Ugh. At any rate, they were a PAIN to remove.

Anyway, after you have them broken, distribute them into an oven safe pan with cute shapes. I used an ice cube tray from Ikea with heart shapes.

Don't use the tray for eating food or making ice cubes after you use it for crayons - the crayons leave a nasty film inside of the tray! Ewww!

Put the tray on top of a cookie sheet lined with foil - in case it spills over. And then put all of it in a 230degree oven for about 15 minutes. You just need the crayons to melt, not to cook.

After 15 minutes they come out looking like this (but more melted):

Leave them on the countertop to cool and harden before removing them.

I made mine a week before I attempted to make cards...

And for the cards, I just drafted up something in Photoshop and printed it out.

I adhered one heart-shaped crayon to the card using foam tape and voila!

The Valentine's Day cards were a HIT! It was really fun this year because the kids really enjoyed giving and receiving some awesome cards.

J even sent one to us in the mail (through the preschool, of course!)

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! :) Love should be celebrated everyday, not just one day out of the year, don't you think?

Have a wonderful Friday!

Comments

[corinne]

awwwww, i love them! Especially the crayola ones! gotta try that! Great jobs, V fam!