We receive a lot of requests for activities and child-appropriate gifts for kids at weddings. Though we have a number of coloring/activity books in our downloads section, we’re always happy to share fun DIY things to keep the little ones occupied. (As a mother of a 3 year old, these dilemmas are cropping up in my everyday life, too!)
From my favorite rubber stamping queen comes this super cute coloring book page and heart crayon project. I’m thinking this could also double as a “will you be my flower girl / ring bearer?” card or transformed into a save-the-date or valentine’s card with a more sophisticated rubber stamp design.
Supplies Needed
- Crayons, assorted colors. Check out your local dollar-type stores for cheapy crayons or ask friends with kids to donate their broken ones to your worthy cause.
- Muffin tin
- Cupcake liners
- Skewer or chopstick for stirring the crayon mix
- Oven
- Heart-shaped candy mold. (Or any shape you so desire.)
- Rubber stamp with open artwork that can be colored
- Permanent ink
- 1 piece of white cardstock trimmed to 4″ x 5 1/4″
- 1 piece of colored cardstock trimmed to 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″
- Double-sided tape
Instructions
1. Place cupcake liners into the muffin tin cavities.
2. Remove paper labels from crayons and break the sticks up into small chunks. Place the broken crayons into the muffin tins. It’s best to sort by color, otherwise the crayons will melt into each other and the results usually aren’t very pretty. You can do a single color or a color family (reds and pinks, for example) for best results. If you want to swirl colors, do that in the mold.
3. Place muffin tin into a 250 degree oven and bake the crayons, stirring occasionally, until melted which should be about 20 minutes.
4. Once your crayons have turned into liquid, you’re ready to pour the wax into the molds. You can use a spoon to ladle the wax into the mold cavities or you can carefully pick up one of the cupcake liners and pour from it into a mold. Careful here: the wax is HOT and will burn you. The wax also hardens quickly so move fast.
5. Put the full mold to the side to let the crayons cool and harden.
6. While your custom crayons are hardening, go ahead and make your cards. Using permanent ink (pigment or alcohol ink), stamp your image onto the piece of white cardstock. Adhere the stamped image onto the piece of colored cardstock using double-sided tape.
7. When your crayons are cool, pop them out of the mold and present them with your sweet little card. Voila!