Crayon time

For the past 8 years my kids and I have made special valentine's heart shaped crayons. We decided years ago that kids at school did not need any more candy, and my kids wanted to do something special for their friends. And so a mini tradition was started.

Its our last year in elementary school, so this might be our last year for crayons. Its been a great way of keeping our crayon population under control.

This year we made 48 crayons. Enough for me to even have a few to pass out.

Kiddo's favorite crayons of this year. Especially the candy corn colored one.

These are my favorite for the year, I love the subtle color shifts.

Been trying to recreate the perfect rainbow crayon since that happy accident  a few years back. http://zoeowyn.blogspot.com/2012/02/img4923jpg.html

Valentine's Day Crayons

This year we made 36 crayons

The blue and yellowish one with pock marks was my favorite this year

Its always fun too see them melted in the tray because that is never what they end up looking like.

Directions:

You need a heart shaped pan, those silicone ice cube trays are not going to stand up to the heat

And another pan with an edge to catch all the spilled wax from the heart shaped pan, and you will have spilling wax, so a cookie sheet with walls is a must

Skin and break up a whole bunch of crayons (or just use all the crayon bits from the bottom of your crayon bucket--what  do you mean you don't have a crayon bucket?)

The more expensive crayons have more pigment and less wax to them, they melt a little slower but you will have a better crayon in the end. The cheapo crayons work just fine, but you will have a layer of non -crayon wax on the back of your heart crayon.

I use a Wilton heart cookie tray, it takes just about 3 full crayons to make one heart crayon.

Break up your crayons, mix up your colors. We found that you do not need to pulverize your crayons, chucks 1/2 or smaller are just fine.

Place in oven, I use 300 degrees and basically just watch it until they are melted. Carefully remove the two pans (this is when the molten lava crayon wax will spill), let the trays cool. After about 20- 30 minutes I put the crayon tray into to freezer for about 10 minutes, then the crayons pop right out.

Annual Valentine crayons

So this year we made crayons again!

Not so many since kiddo #1 is now in middle school.

We did manage to create the most awesome rainbow crayon, only to not be able to repeat it again.

We made a great mess as usual

But we also made a lovely collection of crayons, they are always a surprise since they do not look the same when in the pan-all the cheap wax rises to the top and blends

PCAGOE Cupid Hunt

The members of PCAGOE, the Polymer Clay Artist Guild of Etsy, are sponsoring a Valentine Scavenger Hunt. To participate simply visit participating shops beginning February 6th 2009 and continuing until midnight EST on February 12, 2009, and find the hidden Valentine!

When you find the Valentine in a shop, convo the seller through etsy with the URL of the listing where the image is hidden, or the transaction number for the Item. You may enter once per participating shop.

That’s it! You must be a registered Etsy user to qualify, so if you have not already registered, please take a moment to do so, and you can join in our fun! Registering is fast and easy.

On February 14, 2009, the each seller will draw a winner at random using a random generator.

Here is a list of the other member shops participating in the hunt. Every member is offering a different prize!

tejaesart: polymer clay heart
SCDiva: $25 gift certificate (also valid at PCDiva)
DivaDea: a little love wall art
lynnslittlecreations: it’s a surprise!
SilverGate: two heart magnets
PuppyKissPortraits: Valentine kisses pendant
juliespace: $10 gift certificate
jkollmann: earrings
irismishly: set of four heart beads
ashpaints: 50% off one item
zoeowyn: paisley heart pendant
peggers: $20 gift certificate
beetreebyme: 20% off one order
polyclarific: a surprise pendant
angeli: chocolate truffle pendant
LaurelSteven: heart pendant
revonav: $50 gift certificate

links to all the shops can be found at PCAGOE.com

or you can start the search at my shop at zoeowyn.etsy.com and link to the other shops from there

CRAYONS!

A few weeks ago a friend and I saw these nifty heart shaped ice cube trays at Target. They were cute and pink and I really had no use for them what so ever. Well the other day she says she has been thinking about making heart shaped crayons using those ice cube molds. I thought that was brilliant. Im so tired of all the candy gifts at school, why not give something else. And I really do want my kids to learn that spending money isnt the answer when it comes to gift giving.
So I said, oooh lets do that. She agreed and went in search of the mold. I say search because the ice cube molds were no longer at Target. She found some Wilton metal mini muffin molds, and thats what we used.
Crayons are a way of life at my house. We have not one, but two huge crayon buckets, so finding bits of crayons to use was not a problem.
The crayons turned out fabulous, the kids loved each crayon better than the one before.

This is what we did:

We started with all the broken crayon bits, making sure all the paper was taken off.

We broke the crayons into little bits, if the bits weren't little enought, we put the color combination into a baggie and smashed them with a small hammer.

We piled the crayon bits into the mold tray.

We melted the crayons bits into one heart shaped crayon, the melting was done in the oven at 220 degrees and took about 10 to 15 minutes

We then froze the trays to get the crayons out.


J-man and me filling the mold tray.

This is what we learned:

Different brands of crayons melt at different rates, and the cheaper crayons have more parafin in them, the parafin separates and rises, giving you a layer of solid pale color at what becomes the bottom of the crayon

If you dont want the separation, use the more expensive crayons, but hey, this is a project that uses what you have--if you dont want the parafin layer you can skim it off with a paper towel while the crayons are still melted CAREFUL its lava hot, or you can sand the layer off after everthing has cooled down.

Don't put the liquid melted crayons into the freezer to cool, they will crack and break when you remove them from the mold. Let the crayons naturally cool to room tempurature, then put the pan in the freezer so the crayons will pop out of the pan (BTW this is specific to the metal pan).

Put the glitter in when you are smashing the crayons, it then gets all over and will be spread through out the crayon.

Pile the crayons high. There is a lot of air space they need to melt into, if you make enough bits to fill the mold level you will end up with about half of the mold being filled with melted crayon.

Bake the mold on a cookie sheet with an edge to catch the spills. They wont spill going in, but if your mold is full to the top, it will spill on the way out.

The kids had enough attention span for 1 dozen crayons each.