DIY Crayon Hearts

Making hearts, leaves and other shapes using waxed paper and crayons definitely isn't a new idea but it's one I've never tried before. In case you haven't either, here's how it's done!

Start with crayons (duh). Since I was making hearts for Valentine's Day I chose reds, pinks and purples. For my hearts I used 6 crayons and they yielded approximately 3 8x10 sheets of melted wax.

Take the paper off the crayons and then use a pencil sharpener to turn them into shavings. Be forewarned that crayons are hard on pencil sharpeners. I bought a 4 pack of sharpeners from the dollar store just for this project and the crayons ruined three of them!



Take your shavings and mix all of the colours together. Here's a tip that I wish someone would have told me: if you want the different colours to show up in your final hearts then don't break up your shavings, leave them in larger pieces. Little confetti pieces mean that your colours will all blend into one colour.

Get your ironing board out or choose a different surface to iron on. Lay down a towel that you won't be sad to throw away. Trust me, you will ruin this towel. Next lay down a sheet of waxed paper and cover half of it with crayon shavings. Cover evenly but don't make it thick because you want the light to shine through your finished hearts. Put another piece of waxed paper on top (or start with a large enough piece of waxed paper that you can just fold it over). Then fold the ends of the paper to keep crayon wax from seeping out. Lastly, cover with another towel that you don't mind ruining. The wax will bleed right through the waxed paper.

Now iron the whole thing on medium. Check your crayons after every few passes of the iron because the more you iron the more your colours will muddle together. Keep an eye on the edges you folded so you don't end up with a waxy hot mess on your hands. Once the crayon shavings are all melted together into a solid piece you're done.

Once it's completely cooled take your sheet of wax and cut it into hearts. This is where you'll be happy you didn't spread the shavings too thickly because the thicker your finished wax the more likely the waxed paper is to peel away at the edges.

The last step is to hang them up in your windows. I used a hole punch and then tied them with thread but didn't get a chance to hang mine up last night. I know I probably should have waited for a picture of the final product but I was just too excited to share! So check back tomorrow for the big reveal :)