Valentines!

Last year I bought Valentines for my kids to give away. I hated it! I love handmade things much more than store bought and that was the very first year my kids gave away store bought Valentines. But they enjoyed picking them out so it was fine. BUT this year I had time to make them, so make them we did! I enlisted my little man to help me out since it was such a big job....Ok in reality it would have gone twice as fast without his help, but the pictures and memories are worth much more than my time! If you have never made old crayons into new crayons, here is how you do it:

Step 1: Peel the crayons.


Step 2: Break crayons into smaller pieces. Usually you will use a bigger mold than I am using this time so using a mallet or hammer wouldn't be necessary. But I had 60 of these bad boys to make, so smaller equaled better this year!


Step 3: Scatter the crayons in the mold. I bought these particular molds at the Dollar Spot at Target because I knew that they would be good for nothing else besides crayon molds after this project. If you are attached to a certain mold, especially if it is silicon, DON'T USE IT for this project!


Step 4: Melt the crayons in a 200 degree oven. Ours took between 20 and 25 minutes. Some crayons never melted so I dug them out with a toothpick or just submerged them a bit deeper in the melty mass of crayons.


Step 5: Let them cool and then remove them from the mold. Don't worry if they break. You can just remelt them! And there you have brand new crayons!


I used my Cricut to make 2 1/2" hearts and then wrote "You COLOR my world!" on the front and Taylor helped to write his name on the back. Kami will be able to do all of the To and From for her class, but Taylor still needed a bit of assistance. ;) Here is the finished product!

New Project

I bought Kami the Hayley bedding from Pottery Barn Kids and obviously dropped a small fortune on it. So I'm trying to decorate the rest of her room on the cheap. I found some coordinating fabrics in a fat quarter bundle from The Ribbon Retreat so I am attempting to make a knock-off, er..., replicate the smaller of these two owls.

My friend Julie, of Sew Julie, gave me a tutorial over coffee one day. So this morning while the kids were building Eiffel Tower replicas with alphabet blocks, I decided to make a pattern and cut out my pieces. I used a Sun Harvest paper bag, in case you were wondering. LOL!

This is the back.

This is the top front.


Bottom front.

And the wings.

I have them all cut out now, but I don't have a sewing machine, so they will have to wait for another day. I was going to go to my parent's house to use my mom's machine, but there is noooooooo way I am getting out of the house today. Too cold!!!! I'll definitely post pics when I get it done, though!