Childcare Valentines Gifts

Since my sewing is clean, no place in my house is safe from a quick cleaning session.  This day, it was my laundry room.  I started cleaning and then ended up completely sidetracked with this….

Somewhere on the internet I saw that you could make crayon letters using molds and old broken crayons.  I loved the idea as most of my kiddos have names that they will never be able to get anything personalized.

I did them myself without the kiddos help and plan to give them as a valentine gift.  I was going to wait and blog about making these closer to Valentines Day but then thought if any of you want to make them for Valentines Day, you’d likely want a little time to get the supplies and make them.

They are SUPER cute and easy….here’s what you need:
I got mine from Amazon…these exact ones, Silicone Alphabet Molds

The letters are 1 1/2″ tall.

You’ll also need some broken crayons.  I just got all new when school started so mine were in pretty good shape.  I ended up grabbing these generic crayons from the thrift store along with others.  I have to say, when it comes to peeling the paper off the crayons, it was easiest with these generic brand and the RoseArt brand.  Crayola were okay but not as easy.

I dumped the crayons in a bucket with warm water and the helped loosen the papers.

I set the oven at 275 degrees and then set the molds out on a jelly roll pan.  I broken the paperless crayons into small pieces and put them in the molds.  I learned that I liked the look best if I stood the crayons on end vs laying them flat.  It was a little easier to predict the design.

I put them in the oven for about 6 minutes.  Then I pulled them out and added a couple more crayon piece to the mold to fill it.  Then back in the oven they went.  I kept them in the oven for about 4 more minutes making sure the last added crayons were melted.  Like this…
From there they come out of the oven and wait to cool.  It’s best if they cool for a bit…Like a half hour.  Then pop them out and start building your names.

I bought these  Jewelry Boxes for the letters. 6 letters fit in the box perfectly.  Names with five letters look okay but I realized the names with only 4 letters looked a little bare.
I ended pulling out my Heart Silicone Molds
and made some hearts and added them to the boxes of the kids who only had four letters in their names.

…it was cute but of course I forgot to take a picture of that!  I think if I were to make them for Christmas or for a birthday gift I would buy a this Star Silicone Molds too.  I’d use that for shorter names.

After the names were finished I closed the boxes and used Baker’s Twine 
to tie them up.

Kelli came as I was finishing up and she ended up making a set for her nieces and nephews on Jason’s side of the family.

Kelli and I were talking that nowadays at school some kids can’t give out candy with their valentines.  It would be cute to make a heart crayon and put them in these small clear bags and give them out with valentines instead of candy like we did as kids.

Then Kelli said it would be cute to make stars for stocking stuffers…and then..and then…and then.  I think I’ll end up getting the star mold yet.  I’m sure I’ll be making them again in a couple years as my childcare kiddos get older.

My older childcare kiddos who are in 1st and 2nd grade would have LOVED making these but I never get them for a long enough time.  Maybe we’ll make some over the summer….oh…star for 4th of July.  Yep.  I’m ordering the star mold.

Well…so much for cleaning my laundry room.  I started out making these because I wanted to get the molds and the crayons out of my laundry room.  Well now I have the boxes with the finished crayons in my laundry room waiting for Valentines Day.  Oh well….hazards of the job I guess!!