Valentines

Last week we celebrated that most controversial of Hallmark holidays- Valentines day.  While I tend to agree that it is over-commercialized and pretty much ruined by the giant pink and red plastic heart-shaped everything, I refuse to refuse to participate.  I like to be crafty.  To me, Valentines day is an opportunity to do something fun, sparkly, girly, and love-filled with my little girls.  My four year old is in preschool, and we had fun making home-made valentines for her to give to all of her classmates.  My daughter was literally the only child in her class who gave something hand-made, rather than a perforated-edged store-bought card on which a parent had (presumably) hastily filled in the "to" and "from" section and affixed a new pencil or a bag of mini m&ms.  Unfortunately, this left me feeling slightly embarrassed for having put so much effort into this little preschool exchange.  Oh well, we had fun and despite feeling a bit like we overdid it, I know that I stayed true to my anti-commercialism perspective while also taking advantage of a chance to get crafty and break out my glitter collection.

First, we made heart shaped crayons.  This was seriously an exciting project for us both.  We searched through the crayon bin to find all of the broken bits as well as the undesirable very used crayons to be sacrificed for the hearts.  The most tedious part was peeling the paper off of each crayon, but after they were all de-papered the creative part began.  We used a silicone heart-shaped mini muffin pan, filling each little heart with broken crayon bits of assorted colors.  I tried to do hearts with colors that would contrast nicely- pink/orange/yellow or blue/purple/gray or green/yellow/blue, for example.  Once each heart was filled, I let my daughter sprinkle glitter over the whole thing and then placed the silicone tray onto a cookie sheet and popped it into a 375 degree oven for 5-10 minutes, until the crayons had melted completely.  As soon as they were melted, I carefully carried the cookie sheet outside and left it out there to cool off.  The melted crayons definitely gave our whole house a very waxy smell, so letting them cool outside also helped keep the aroma from being overpowering.  Once completely cooled, the heart-shaped crayons popped right out of the silicone pan with ease.  The melted wax creates a beautiful swirling effect, sort of like marbles.  We were both very pleased with the end result!

For the valentines for the class, we went to Michaels and bought several sheets of scrap book paper in all sorts of neat prints.  During my daughter's quiet time, I used a package of plain-white heart shaped cardstock to trace hearts from the scrap book paper and then cut out an assortment of patterned hearts.  My daughter then used a glue-stick to affix the colorful hearts onto the cardstock, and then decorated each  one with glitter and rhinestones.  She wrote the name of each of her classmates on the plain white side and signed her name on each one (this was the most time-consuming part for a four year old!).  We used little circles of double-sided sticky foam to affix a heart crayon onto each, as well.  The finished valentines were unique and very representative of my daughter's personality, and I think that she was proud to give them to her friends.  It was fun to see her select which heart would be for which classmate (only one special little boy got a heart that looked like a waffle, and with a cupcake sticker on it.... cute!). Here are her finished valentines, with crayon hearts affixed.  See the waffle, in the middle of the bottom row?  Her best buddy got the butterfly.  Happy Valentines Day- no perforated edges here! :)