Last weekend, F, was home sick with a fever. After the tylenol kicked in, I thought we'd try making wax paper hearts (project idea from the Artful Parent) while T napped and P playdated at a friend's house. I couldn't quite gauge how much F liked this project, she seemed a little bored by it. But then a few days later, when she felt better and P returned, she asked, "can we please make window hearts again? P you're going to love this project, it's so BEAUTIFUL." And they both really seemed to love putting the hearts in the window and watching them glow (the ironed paper produces a lovely stained glass effect).
Here's the scoop:
You'll need: Crayon shavings (I used a cheap cheese grater, but you can also use a pencil sharpner), wax paper, an iron, and scissors.
1. I asked the girls to make patterns and designs with the crayon shavings on the wax paper. I tried to prolong this part as long as possible by saying things like "wow, that's beautiful! What were you think of when designing it?"
2. We then placed a new piece of wax paper on top of the decorated sheet.
3. Iron the wax paper on low. I placed a kitchen towel between the iron and the paper to make sure that the paper didn't melt onto the iron.
4. We then traced hearts onto the melted paper using our heart stencils. After cutting the hearts out, we taped them to the window. Originally I planned on making a heart mobile, similar to the Artful Parent and Martha Stewart, but my motivation was not high enough.
What about everyone else? Any creative Valentine's Day ideas?
We loved this project - which I found from linking from your blog! The kids really liked picking out and sorting broken crayons, but I found the grating part to be impossible. So, they pulverized the crayons in heavy duty plastic bags with the handles of screw-drivers. I think that was the favorite part. I ruined the iron because I was impatient with the melting through the towel so I had to buy Steve a new one (yes, the iron is his). So, this was an expensive, but well-worth-it project! We glued the hearts to red card stock to make Valentine's cards.
ReplyDeleteI love the screw driver idea. I actually was impatient with the melting and semi-ruined the iron too. It was just so fun to watch the crayons melt.
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