Heart Shaped Crayons

Happy February! With Valentine’s Day around the corner I wanted to share what Emma and Olivia are putting together for a few of their friends. I also want to share how this simple DIY got out of hand real quick.

As we walked by the Valentine’s aisles at the store I suggested to Emma if she preferred to make something to give out instead. It was an instant yes!

I got to thinking what my kids could make that would be easy and candy free. Then I came across this Heart Silicone Candy Mold at Michaels and decided to make some heart shaped crayons.

After googling the instructions on how to make heart shaped crayons we got to removing the paper from the crayons. Let me tell you, taking the paper off the crayons, was probably the most time-consuming part. Guess where all the paper ended up? The floor. Emma and Olivia thought it would be a good idea to remove the paper to a few crayons and blow the paper off the table! Aah!

Then we got to the fun part. Seeing how they melted in the oven. Here are the instructions I got. I will not link where I got them because of the fiasco that happened after.

“Bake at 250 degrees F in a conventional or toaster oven for 15-20 minutes until crayons are fully melted. Allow to cool and harden completely before removing from the mold.” Simple right? Wrong!

The first time I baked them in our conventional oven, it was simple. I waited for these lovely heart shaped crayons to cool down and my kids were so impatient. So I turned off the oven and decided to pull out the toaster oven to do more batches at a later time, but I didn’t expect what happened in the second round.

I had learned that my kids were impatient to wait for the crayons so waited until they had gone bed to bake another batch. Following the same directions from above. This time, I told myself: in 10 minutes I’ll go stir the wax so it could get a good mix. Ten minutes later I go to mix and guess what I saw? FLAMES!!!!

The wax was burning!! I pulled out the tray the mold was on, not sure what to do. Should I put it out with water? Should I put a damp cloth on top? Should I try to blow it out? I did call my husband while holding the tray with flames still burning and said: GET OVER HERE! I’VE STARTED A FIRE! By now the mold was melting.

While my husband rushed to the kitchen I opened the side door and threw the tray to the wet cement and that was the end of it! Some of the melted wax did manage to get on our kitchen floor, but that was the least of my worries. I was able to clean it off.

I can’t explain to you how or why it happened, but it did. I’m just glad that the only thing on fire was the mold and the crayon wax and not our home. Thank you Jesus!

My recommendation? Stick to the conventional oven, but I’ll leave that up to your own discretion.

I’m sharing all this with you because I’m already seeing many beautiful Valentine’s Day DIY’s on Instagram. The cute crafts. The heart shaped meal ideas for kids. Valentine’s sensory bins. Gift ideas. Truth is, we don’t know if anyone had some sort of fire to put out.

Maybe not actual flames like me, but what people go through on a day to day basis. I thought I’d share real life with you and I really appreciate you for listening to my story.

I’m already laughing at what happened and good news is that I still have time to make more, in time for Valentine’s Day.

Almost forgot to mention, I also made Valentine’s cards!