Heart crayons

 

I've been wanting to try this artsy Valentine's craft from Parent Hacks for a while now.  (I'm not ambitious enough to melt them down as per the instructions from the post Recycle Old Crayons Into New Shapes.)

Then one day I looked around the house and saw this:
 

 

Later in the week at the store I saw this:
 

 


So we put the crayons in a bucket with warm water, and peeled the labels off:

 

And chopped them up.  (Turns out I cut the pieces too small.  Next time I'll make them 1.5 - 2 cm, or about 1/2 inch,  in length.)

 

The bits go in a silicone baking pan:

 

Pop it in the oven at 230 F for about 15 min (you can see some aren't quite melted yet).  Tip:  put the kitchen exhaust fan on and / or open a window to get fresh air into the room.

 

Let the whole thing cool and then pop them out!

 
Any rough edges can be smoothed down by rubbing across a piece of paper.

Just make sure that kids don't eat them!