Create Your Own Heart-shaped Crayons for Valentine's Day

Creating these beautiful custom crayons is a project I've wanted to try for a long time, and we finally got a chance to make these this past weekend. The results really exceeded our expectations!

These crayons look amazing and professional and are so easy to make. Plus, if you have kids, you probably have the materials to make them lying around the house already. These make a fun and pretty gift for Valentine's Day, as well as neat party favors. They even look great as decorations around the house.

To make these, the first thing you need to do is round up all the old crayons in your house. If you're like us, this should not be very difficult. Of course you can also go out and buy a box of crayons to make this craft, since they're not that expensive. (Once you make a batch of these, you'll find that you're always careful to bring home the leftover crayons that restaurants give you with the kids' menu.)

You'll also need a heart-shaped muffin or baking pan in which to mold the crayons. Either non-stick metal or silicone will do.

We made a half-dozen heart crayons, each about a half inch thick, and used approximately 24 crayons. We took pieces of crayon and sorted them by color, trying to get a nice combination of hues for each one—greens and yellows, reds and pinks, yellow and orange, and various shades of purple. You can combine any colors you like—just use your imagination.

We had a little silver glitter on hand, and my daughter sprinkled some on the bottom of each cup in the pan. You don't have to add the glitter, but a light sprinkling of the stuff give the finished crayons a really neat effect. We then filled each cup with crayon pieces, breaking up the larger pieces as needed, until each cup was about 2/3 full.

Preheat your oven to 200ºF, and when it's ready, slide in your muffin pan. Keep them in there for 12 to 15 minutes or until the crayons are just melted. Some of the crayons may seem a little lumpy, but they'll continue to melt when the pan is out of the oven. Above all, you don't want them to burn. If they turn brown, you've heated them for too long.

Remove the pan from the oven slowly to avoid spilling the melted wax, and let cool in a safe place. Needless to say, keep little hands away from the pan until it's thoroughly cooled.

Let the crayons cool for about 30 minutes or until set, then remove from the pan. If they stick, put the pan in the freezer for another 30 minutes or so and they'll pop out with no problem.

If you don't have a heart-shaped pan, don't worry—these even look great made in a regular old muffin tin. In fact, my daughter set up another batch in a a mini-muffin pan and they turned out great.

Have fun with this creative and easy project.