Valentine, You Melt My Heart!

I LOVE melted crayon art.

You can do these black-framed templates each month using a different theme (shamrocks for March) and your students will never tire of them.

They have an outstanding stained-glass look, when hung in the windows or make an eye-catching bulletin board, by sprinkling them kitty whompus on a white or aluminum foil background with a paper lace border. Caption: Valentine, You Melt My Heart!

They are quick and easy, with terrific results; who could ask for more? Plus, peeling crayons and manipulating a sharpener, make for wonderful practice with fine motor skills.

Follow the project up with a mini lesson on secondary colors, as your students watch the crayons melt into each other and the yellow and red shavings blend to make a vibrant orange etc.

Here’s how to make a stained-glass crayon melt valentine heart:

Make heart templates from my master out of old file folders.  Students trace them on a sheet of black construction paper.

Make sure to tell them to keep their paper folded in half.

Children cut on the lines, open their paper and are always amazed to find a heart.

If you have a Duplo, simply run off my master on black construction paper, fold the paper and have students cut on the lines.

As children finish, call them up to the melting table.

Lay a towel on the table and put down a sheet of wax paper.

Students have already selected the color crayons they wanted on their heart from the broken crayon tub and have removed the paper wrappings.

Children insert the crayon into the sharpener and twist it once.  Make sure they sprinkle their filings on different spots of the wax paper.

You may want to have them swirl their pile of shavings with a Q-tip before you melt them.

Lay another sheet of wax paper over the top.

Set the iron on the lowest setting and lay it on top of the wax paper for a second.  Lift and put on another spot.

I have experimented with “ironing” the sheet , rubbing it gently back and forth, instead of just pressing it up and down, but found that the colors run too much and smear into a big mess, sometimes ending up to have a  “brownish” color instead of a nice melted many-color effect.

Practice does make perfect here, so you may want to experiment a bit before you start on your students’ projects.

Children brush Elmer’s glue on their black heart frame with a Q-tip and lay it on top of the wax paper.

Press with palms.

Let dry and then cut off the wax paper edges.

Since the backs are lovely too, these look great dangling from the ceiling as well.

Simply punch a hole in the top, make a yarn or ribbon loop and hang.

For another interesting look, have children put tissue paper squares on the wax paper using Elmer's glue. I really like the new CLEAR Elmer's it's perfect for this type of project. 

When dry, brush lightly with Modge Podge and then mount the black heart frame on the top.  They look cute sprinkled lightly with opalescent glitter too!

Do NOT hang in the window, because the sun will fade the tissue paper colors.

Click on the link to view/print the Melted Crayon Valentine Heart directions & pix

These lovely melted crayon hearts made from waxpaper are from Martha Stewart. 

Do you have a valentine idea you could share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you: diane@teachwithme.com OR...post a comment, especially if you use one of mine! Thanks in advance.

Be sure and stop on in tomorrow for another fun idea.