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A Colorful Valentine’s Day Card

make-it-monday

crayon-card

We’re planning ahead for Valentine’s Day. Since it was a gloomy weekend, the kids and I made some melted heart crayons for my first-grader’s Valentine’s Day cards. If you haven’t ever tried this project, it’s simple with great results and is a nice way to recycle broken crayons. We followed the directions from Marie at Make and Takes. The only advice I have is that the brighter colors look much better, so hide the browns, blacks and dark blues from your kids. I also used a knife on one batch to cut the crayons into even smaller bits, which I think worked well.

crayon-hearts

I made two versions of this card. One can be used without the crayon in the center, and the other has an open middle to attach the crayon. We used foam adhesive tape to attach the hearts to the cards. Simply click on an image below to download the .pdf file, print it out on card stock and cut. We also used a corner punch to create rounded corners.

colorful-valentine's-day-cacrayon-cards2

My daughter is going to send the crayons with her own drawing below, which we scanned in and will print out. That way she can decorate them as much as she likes, but if she gets tired of it, they are still done. I’ve got another idea for my five-year-old’s valentines because she really requires that everything be covered in glitter. The teachers will love that.

child's-valentine

113 Replies to “A Colorful Valentine’s Day Card”

  1. Thanks for the cute idea. I have been trying to come up with something that my daughter could help make for the kids in her preschool class. I think this will be perfect.

  2. This is just perfect! I get so tired of sending candy . . . this is a great alternative! And thanks so much for sharing the pdf file – you’re so kind!

  3. one quick question . . . may I ask what kind of mold you used for the heart shape? Did you use cookie cutters placed on tin foil or a candy mold – or something else altogether? THanks!

  5. These are way too cool! I can’t wait to make them. My oldest daughter and I were just talking about what valentine’s to make for school. Fun!

  7. This is great! I’m going to use this for my daughter’s preschool valentines. Thanks so much.

  9. Wonderful! I was already planning on doing heart crayons for my sons pre-school valentines but I wasn’t sure what to put them on. Thanks so much for the printable!!!

  17. Oh my, we totally made crayon hearts out of all our old crayons just this past Friday! I was going to use them for my 2 year old’s valentines, now I have a card to set them on! Yay! Thanks!

  18. I love these!! I had to try this immediately and I used a silicone heart tray and they just pop right out! Love Love Love it!! We even used some glitter crayons which turned really cool looking! Thanks for the awesome idea! So much better than passing out pre-made V-Day cards and easy too!

  22. Great idea! A friend was just telling me that she did these last year and used a straw to put a hole in the top and turned them into little necklaces. Another cute variation!

  24. I so love this idea….what a great way to use up all those broken crayons!! Can I ask what did you use to attach the crayon to the card?

  27. Thanks, Ellen! How very, very kind of you to share this awesome idea a few weeks before Valentine’s Day so I could be a copy cat!! I find lots of ideas that I love out here, but rarely have the energy to implement them. We started this project today. Check us out: http://sacredspaceforstacie.typepad.com/stacies-sacred-space/2010/01/inspired-to-action.html

    I’ll be getting some cardstock next to print your beautifully laid out .pdf. Thank you so much!!

  29. Yahoo!! We’re making heart shaped crayons to give out for Valentine’s Day at my little boy’s preschool. This is PERFECT!! 🙂 I did the same thing when my daughter was in preschool, except without the pretty background you made up. I love it!! Thanks for sharing it with the blogosphere!

  31. When we make these, we stick a toothpick in them while they’re soft (not runny). When they cool, we pull the toothpick out, run a string through the hole, and make necklaces!

  32. @Brianna- either the heat in the over was up too high, or you left them in too long. I made these a few years ago. You want the was to just melt, but not totally turn to liquid. Aim for a gooey texture. 🙂 Keep trying! 😀

  33. I love this idea! I found a heart shaped mini muffin pan at Michaels. My daughter and I are very excited to make these for her kindergarten class. Thank you!

  34. i love the idea and really the simplicity of it. Makes something useful instead of candy and throw away cards that take 5 days to sign for the little ones.

  38. LOVE this! I think we’ll hit Target for the muffin tins tomorrow and get to work this week. Thanks for a great idea and letting me fool people into thinking I am somewhat creative!

  39. This is so cool. I love reusing things. And there are plenty of broken crayons flying around in this house. Thanks for the idea and the links.

  40. Thanks for this great idea! We just made 6 hearts in our mini muffin pans (silicone) and they popped right out. Your printable cards came out great too!

    We’re leaving TOMORROW for a trip to visit friends and family out of state and I wanted our daughter to be able to bring up some valentines to give to her friends and these were perfect!! Thanks so much!

  41. With four kids, we have well over 100 valentines to make, so we wanted to make mini-heart crayons (economy is everything with 4 kids!). We got small heart-shaped candy molds from the craft store. They are made of plastic, so we had to modify a bit. Baked at a slightly lower temperature (260F) in a hot water bath (being careful not to spill water into the molds) worked just right! The candy molds are much less expensive than the mini muffin pans. One last hint: when water did get into the molds before the crayons hardened, we just used the tip of a paper towel to soak it up.

  43. Love this idea. We’ve already done our valentine’s this year, but I will remember this for next year. I have a friend with a Downs’ son and she used to collect our broken crayons to make him shapes like this for coloring. The larger size she made was easier for him to manipulate to learn to color with, and it helps to recycle the crayons. When we had too many she took them to school for his teacher to use for the other children.

  45. My daughter and I just made a bunch of heart crayons and it never occurred to me to use them for valentines. I love this much better than candy!

  46. So CUTE! My son and I are making these today for his preschool and all this little cousins. What a great idea. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

  48. We made the crayons this weekend and I just sent the cards to FedEx Office for printing. Thank you!! I failed to remember to remove the blacks, browns, and dark blue, but oh well I think they will still be enjoyed. Unfortunately the only molds I could find had a fluted edge, but maybe that will make the drawing more fun. 🙂

  50. Thank you so much for this. With money tight this year, I had been looking for a great alternative. My son had a blast breaking crayons with me!!

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