Valentine's Day Crafties

We were super busy this Valentine's Day.  And only because I decided we HAD to try all these crafties, and then, of course, I left them all to the last minute.  In my defense, baking always SHOULD be left to the last minute because then it tastes better.  But, perhaps my lesson learned is that I should pick less labor intensive crafties when I have a 3 year old helper...

For Max's school Valentine's Day party, we made Heart-Shaped Rice Krispie Treat Lollipops.  These are GOOD.  I know this because we had left over rice krispie treats that I dipped in chocolate to 'test'.  Mom's always got to make sure of quality control....

Despite all the steps, these were SUPER easy.

1.  Make Rice Krispie treats and spread them on a rimmed baking sheet

2.  Take heart shaped cookie cutter (or I suppose you could do it by hand, but I wanted mine pretty uniform).  Cut as many heart shaped treats as you need.

3.  Insert lollipop stick into bottom of treat while still partly warm (will be easier to insert it this way).

4.  Let cool/set.  Nap time worked well to accomplish this (just keep them covered or in a sealed container so they don't get too hard or brittle).

5.  Melt white or dark chocolate (you could color the white chocolate too if you wanted to get even more crafty).  We used Wilton Melting chocolates because I wanted to use up the ones we had left over from the holidays.

6.  Dip hearts in chocolate or use a spoon to spread chocolate on one surface.

7. Let 3 year old sprinkle the tops of the treats -- I let him do them one at a time on a wax-paper lined rimmed baking sheet. This way, I can periodically lift the wax paper and slide the sprinkles back into the bowl, and the rim keeps sprinkles from getting all over your floor.

8. Let the chocolate set.

9. You could then just pack them up in a container and call it a day. But I am craftier than that, and had heart-decorated lollipop bags I put mine in. Not necessary, but very cute! :) See for yourself!

We also made contact paper heart stained glass this weekend.  This one was almost a fail when I couldn't find the clear contact paper (a causality of 'cleaning' and 're-organizing'.  But I found it eventually, and have re-organized it in a more logical spot now.

This craft was equally easy.  I pre-cut a bunch of various sized hearts out of extra scrap paper.  Then, I gave Max and Sam a sheet of contact paper with the sticky side up and told them to go to town.  Sam required a bit of supervision because he really like to eat the hearts and also he got upset when they got stuck to the paper...  I told Max he could put them anyway he wanted but he put his all facing upwards and all facing one direction.  :)  Then you just take another sheet of contact paper and 'seal' the hearts in.  I use double-sided tape to  hang them on the windows.  They look pretty on a sunny day (and not late at night when I remembered to take a picture). 

A word of caution -- the bigger the sheet of contact paper, the harder it is to put the 'sealing' sheet on.  Max requested to do this craft a second time on Saturday, so I gave him a smaller sheet.  Then, I cut the 'sealing' sheet into a heart shape and laid that on top of his decorated sheet.  I used the heart shaped sheet as a guide to cut the entire piece of art into a heart.  I like the way this looks better, personally....

Heart-shaped crayons.  Another SUPER easy craft.  I think I first saw this in a magazine (Family Fun, perhaps?).  Anyways all you need for this is:  crayon pieces (use all the broken crayons that accumulate...a GREAT way to get rid of and clean out your art box!), a silicon heart shaped tray and an oven.  I found my heart shaped tray (labelled as an ice cube tray) in the dollar spot at Target a few years ago.  It has been invaluable -- I've used it for bath bombs, soaps and now crayons!

Take the bits of crayons and  make sure you take off all the paper.  Break into smaller pieces if necessary.  Put into the silicone heart molds.  You don't need to fill the holes all the way up -- we filled ours up about halfway.

Heat oven to about 275F.  Set mold in oven (I put mine on a baking sheet) for about 10-15 mins, or until crayons have melted.  Take out and let set.  Once they have cooled and set, you should be able to just pop them right out of the mold!

I put mine in clear little gift bags and attached Max's valentines for his classmates to the crayons.  We had a few extra, so I tried one out.  They work pretty well!   And, super easy for little hands to grab.



What did YOU do for Valentine's Day?  Any fun and easy crafties to share?